


The Immortality Virus (Project: Immortality)

by Red_Leasia



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), Resident Evil, Resident Evil - All Media Types
Genre: Biohazard 6 - Freeform, F/M, J'avo, Jake Muller - Freeform, Resident Evil 6, Sherry Birkin - Freeform, Ustanak, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-11-16 11:11:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 42
Words: 59,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11251929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Leasia/pseuds/Red_Leasia
Summary: Six months after the events in China a new threat emerges from the Shadowy Realm of Neo-Umbrella throwing Jake and Sherry together again as they try to stop the circle of events started by their parents. Rumors swirl of a new virus using combined samples from both Jake and Sherry during their time in captivity. Leaks from those in authority cause even Leon to question his loyalties to the DSO.





	1. Jake

The dream always repeated itself over and over again.

_The petite blonde girl sat in front of him. She was talking...he remembered what she was saying, "never giving up, no matter the odds." Although what she was saying was not as important as the fact that it was her back in the cabin again like the day they had first met._

_God, she had been annoying back then._

_But she had been right too. Right about a lot of things._

Six months ago, he had simply sat and stared at her wondering how all that annoying "save the world" personality could be wrapped into such a small person. She was not the kind of person he would have given a second glance at. And yet she had shown up, followed him, yelled at him when he needed it, and watched his back. He had discovered her in return. She was more than what she seemed. She had been through more. She was quite animated and all he could do was listen, never really sure how he should respond...

Until he had heard the click of a gun outside and then he had covered her from the spray of bullets that followed as J'avo attacked the cabin. He had done it without thinking and her own wide eyed surprise as she stared up at him showed just how much she was struggling to trust him.

_Now every time he heard the click in his dreams and he pushed her over to protect her he would look down expecting to see her there under him but she would be gone. Looking up she was always being carried away, not by J'Avo this time. But by her own government soldiers._

_"Jake!" She screamed every time, her hand outstretched towards him, just like she had in China when there really were J'Avo taking her away._

_And he would always call her name in return. But he could never get to her._

_Something was always holding him back and whenever he focused on it..._

_"Jake!"_

"Jake!" He heard his name shouted over and over again as the dream faded and his eyes popped open.

"Mr. Jake?"A 18-year boy named Muhammed was shaking him roughly. "Mr. Jake, wake up!"

Jake's eyes snapped awake as he took in where he was. _Yemen._ The heat poured in and he groaned as he sat up pushing the dream away. Coughing up dust he glanced around for water. What he wouldn't give for a good Edonian snow storm right about now. A pit formed in his stomach as he thought of home but he pushed it away. There was nothing in Edonia for him now. His unit was gone, his mother dead...and there was no Sherry back there to rescue him from himself.

"What is it?" He growled at the youth. Sweat dripped down his forehead and he wiped it out of his face. He fallen asleep on a low cot, gear still attached. He must have been tired last night after setting up some of their traps for him to not even remove his gun from his hip holster. The holster was another souvenir from China. He was not sure who it belonged to before he had stolen it but odds are it was some mindless J'avo from the facility where he had been taken from Edonia.

"Strelats!" the boy replied happily tossing a canteen at him. There were others with them, milling around excitedly picking up weapons.

Jake tipped the canteen up and took a long swig. The water was lukewarm but in this heat any was welcome.

"Strelats?" Jake repeated setting the canteen down. "How many?"

"Three!" Muhammed said before running back towards the door.

_When had the boy become so happy to face monsters?_ Jake thought shaking his head. The last of the dream ebbed away.

_Sorry Super Girl_ , he thought to himself as he raised himself off his cot. _I know most people like to drown their sorrows in alcohol, but I like killing monsters instead._

Feeling his own adrenaline rush going, Jake dragged on his boots.

Three Strelats before breakfast?

No problem.


	2. Sherry

Sherry stood in front of the mirror studying herself. She looked perfect. Her eyes didn't show the least bit of wear, her hair was in place, her clothes were just right. Mentally she felt exhausted, the drain of pushing through the day, the nights of nightmares, giving her little to no sleep.

It had been six months since China, six months since she'd escaped from the clutches of Neo-Umbrella, six months since she'd seen Jake Muller, the man she'd gone to find in the hopes of saving the world. Six months since she'd actually had a descent night's sleep.

The nightmares had started when she'd returned home alone. Flashes of them running away from B.O.W.'s, escaping and then being caught and he wasn't there with her anymore. Or it was him being killed and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Of him abandoning her as she was sliced open again and again.

The healing ability that came with her infection was what they had studied over and over again. She trembled as the memories came. Those were the worst. Being so close to death and never being allowed to just die. Never taking the pain away, just allowing her to heal repeatedly.

Those were the worst of all.

She sighed and picked up her gym bag. She was practicing her martial arts a lot with the BSAA right now. It was Leon's advice.

She'd been chosen to be a liaison to the BSAA for the DSO for now that they'd been allowed a headquarters on US soil. They had come to some kind of agreement, the BSAA were even allowed an unofficial headquarters in the DC area.

What it really meant? _You're grounded until we can figure out what to do with you._ Sherry had been a ward of the US Government since she was 12, her unusual circumstances insured she'd never lead a normal life, but at least she could put her abilities to use. Soon she would have to return to her job at the Division of Security Operations.

At least that was her hope. After all Bio-Terrorism hadn't decreased in the past six months. If anything it had become the new normal, but the methods being used were not considered as life threatening as the looming C-Virus epidemic in China had been. So she was on the back burner for now, bored to tears, and plagued by nightmares of man she could never see again unless he wanted the same fate as her. That was too much to ask of him.

Sherry felt amused as she tried to imagine Jake taking orders from the DSO. He would probably end up like Leon. Leon, while good at what he did, even if he was unconventional had more lectures than anyone else at the DSO. He was the leading expert.  Jake was good at what he did too. For a moment Sherry entertained the idea of him being here, but then she turned her thoughts to Leon. 

Leon Kennedy, the man who had rescued her when she was a child, had been rather busy as of late. She'd rarely seen him since she'd come back. He'd been a big part of her decision to join the DSO in the first place. She missed the occasional visits from him and Claire Redfield.

Jake was another matter altogether. They'd gotten close in a short period of time, close in the way people do when forced to go through dangerous situations. She barely made it to the man's shoulder. He'd had to use his brute strength alone to get them out of several bad places. The whole situation had been ironic considering Sherry had been sent in to get him out in the first place.

After running through her routines at the gym she showered, grabbed her gym bag and headed for the car, still reminiscing.

She could hear his voice now. _"And here I thought dear old Dad was just a dead beat who skipped out on us. No, no, no, turns out he's a freakin' nut job who almost destroyed the world!"_

Sherry dropped her gear into the car, wondering what Jake was up to these days whether he was still putting up the good fight or if he’d gone back to his old ways. She was so lost in thought in fact, she didn’t even hear the slow crawl of the car pulling up behind her.

Before she knew what was happening, a hand was on her mouth as a large man tried to wrestle her into his car but thank goodness her years of training kicked in. Sherry stomped hard on the man’s foot before ramming her elbow as hard as she could into his ribs. The man stumbled back from the blow and Sherry let out a high pitched scream

Her screams and self-defense skills paid off as BSAA agents came pouring out of the gym in their work out gear to see what was going on. Sherry managed to fight off the one who grabbed her, jabbing him in the throat, and he leap into the car croaking, "I'll be back for you." The Adrenaline rush slapped her back to present quickly enough. 

"Sherry!" It was Chris Redfield coming out of the gym. He was a lead BSAA Captain, and friend of hers for many years. Chris's unit had also been "reassigned" to train soldiers in the states, although Sherry secretly wondered if they were simply keeping an eye on her. This was the first time the BSAA had been allowed a unit inside the United States. Times had changed as bio-warfare had expanded everywhere. "Jesus you are shaking all over." He took her by the arm, motioning to another man from his unit named Devon. "Call Leon. Hey anyone see the plate on that car?" 

They all knew who Leon was just as they all knew Sherry was a friend, and most knew her history, although her healing ability was currently classified. Devon called him back. "He's on his way, Sir. Anything I can do to help?"

"Get her car started. We're taking her home, now." Devon turned the key in the ignition and Sherry grateful for the assistance did not argue. Her head hurt, and the strain of not sleeping well was taking its toll on her. She stepped into the back seat of her car and Chris slid in next to her still holding her arm. His phone rang. "It's me." He said putting it to his ear.

He listened for a moment and then replied, "They got to her, or tried to. Some guy actually grabbed her. Tell me you're on your way. Good, I'm glad she's coming."

"Who is coming?" Sherry asked, her voice still wavered a bit. "Wait what did you mean? What don't I know?"

She sat there trembling a little with the thought in the back of her mind. _I'm an agent, why am I acting like the scared little girl Leon and Claire took out of Raccoon City again? I'm twenty-seven years old, not twelve._

Rain had started to fall as the car moved forward. 1st. Sargent Mac Devon strained to listen to the muted conversation between Sherry and his Captain. They were all quite fond of Sherry. 

They knew she'd done time as a National Security Agent and was on leave following a kidnapping in China where she'd disappeared for six months. But not everyone knew who was involved or how she'd escaped. Her security clearance was higher than any of theirs. Chris and his sister Claire had taken her in again after that, dropping in to make sure she was handling things. Leon Kennedy also dropped in to make sure she was doing all right.

But Mac Devon liked her even more than the rest. He attempted to get her out and about more, make her laugh. He could tell she was distracted but told himself that it was the stress from work. The rest of the unit knew he had feelings for her and gave him grief about it.

Chris had told him to back off and let her recover from her experiences. Chris really liked the young man but he knew it was too soon for Sherry. She was still haunted.

So Devon waited just as curious as Sherry Birkin to know what Chris knew that the rest of them didn't.

"They're back." Chris said simply. Sherry seemed to shrink back into her seat. She stared at the falling rain.

"No..." The words slipped out quietly.

 _They_. It could only mean Neo-Umbrella was back. Sherry knew the organization was big, although how big remained a mystery. She remembered telling Jake maybe they had an oil baron or two in their pocket. Perhaps they had a whole lot more than that. They could deliver on their promises, that was the problem. They had the technology, you weren't just wiping out a company, this was a web of countries all using the same technology on each other to further their own goals. 

All Neo-Umbrella had to do was sit and watch them destroy each other as they lined their pockets.

It also meant potentially that she would have to go back to being under the protection of the government. She doubted she'd have too many missions in the field after this. The US Government had access to her pretty much whenever they wanted but all it took was the wrong person with the wrong motivations and she'd probably go away forever.

For her own safety of course.

"They had your samples in that lab..." Chris continued looking ahead as Devon drove. "They appear to be working on something else from them. We got wind of it, but it seems like they have a few test samples of what they had and it worked...on something. But they're calling it the 'Immortality' virus."

"They're after my virus again." She breathed out dread suddenly rising up into her chest. "They wanted to know why I could heal....and they tested me a lot...."

"Yeah," said Chris. "You know a lot of people would pay dearly for that. And it looks like they got a sponsor or sponsors."

"So you've been here babysitting me."

Chris had the grace to look sheepish for a moment. "I didn't think it was over yet. No one did."

Sherry looked at Chris in the eye. "Does.... does Jake know?"

Chris sat back looking away. "No, we've kept an eye on him, he's preoccupied himself with taking out B.O.W.'s in the Middle East. A lot of those countries don't even want us in there to help but somehow, he got in. Not really touched the money we'd paid him to study his blood and make a vaccine from it. We haven't reached out to him just yet."

In truth Sherry had made sure Jake got every penny he'd asked for the first time. It was the least she could do; he'd done far more than save the world to her. He'd kept her going, kept her focused on the mission. After they went their separate ways he'd gone out and taken on B.O.W.'s on his own in the Middle East. She smiled at the memories. Part of her missed their harrowing journey more than she was going to admit to anyone. 

Especially to Chris who right now was staring at her as if she was made of glass

.They pulled up to Sherry's apartment. She lived in a small apartment building not far from the gym. She had a ground floor room not quite trusting to be up too high anymore, she had told Claire she wanted a quick escape if she needed it. 

A blue truck sat in the driveway and a brunette woman climbed out as Devon climbed from the car and opened Sherry's door. He took her hand and pulled her out as the other woman rushed over.

"Sherry are you all right? Leon called me and told me to come as quickly as I could. He's on his way."

"I'm fine." Sherry said stiffly to Claire. She was still preoccupied with the best way to get to Jake, to warn him of the dangers they were both in now.

"Let's get her inside." Chris took her by the elbow.

Claire nodded and opened the front door. "I'll make some coffee."

Chris bent down and whispered in her ear. "I know you are worried about Jake but that kid is tough. He can handle himself until we get there."

She jerked to a stop. "You're going after him?"

"Probably," Chris said. "Leon will let me know when he gets here. We've got to have a good excuse for getting him though. Not everyone knows about him." He was looking at his 1st Sargent who was following behind and closing the door keeping a wary eye on their surroundings.

"Right." Sudden inspiration burst through her. "What if we're offering him a job? As an agent?"

Chris paused. "What? Why would we do that?"

"Think about it..." Sherry was excited. "He's been clearing B.O.W.'s for the past six months with some success. It's a good excuse."

"We'll run it by Leon..." Chris started.

"Run what by me?" Leon was coming through the doorway sidestepping Devon with a nod, just as Claire was coming back through with coffee. She handed two cups, one to Chris, the other to Sherry. Leon eyed the coffee for a moment. "Gin?"

Claire shook her head and Leon sighed.

Leon glanced around the room and stopped on Devon. "Guess you now have a higher level security clearance...that is. Do you trust him?" He turned to Chris.

"Yeah I do." Chris responded nodding.

Devon stood a little taller, and glanced over at Sherry who was smiling at him as well over her coffee cup.

"So what are you running by me again?" Said Leon.

"A job, for Jake." Sherry blurted.

Later Devon listened incredulously as they discussed the best way to get to a "Jake Muller." He did not like the way Sherry's eyes lit up when she talked about him. He didn't want her anywhere near this guy. Mostly he didn't understand why they needed him in the first place. He was apparently good at what he did. Leon's admiration told Devon that, but what exactly did they need him for? It wasn't like the BSAA to go get someone outside the system just to protect Sherry. It didn't make sense.

"We can all go," said Chris evenly. "I'll take my unit out to find him."

"He's not going to talk to you." Sherry replied. "I don't think he hates you or anything...but he's not overly fond of you."

Chris shrugged. "Guess you'll have to be there to negotiate." It went unspoken that they never mentioned Jake's biological father around anyone who did not already know. He was the son of Albert Wesker and a woman, Jake's mother, whom Jake refused to name. Jake was afraid they go find her where she was buried, which to him would have been losing her all over again. Wesker never did anything without a reason and initially there'd been some curiousity among higher ups in the know, but Jake had remained tight lipped about everything and they'd been forced to settle for his pint of blood as he'd refused to move to the United States. 

Sherry had been forced to watch him walk away knowing she couldn't force him into the life she'd accepted for herself.

She had never even told Claire about Jake's parentage, and Claire had rescued her from Raccoon City with Leon, who oddly enough had kept quiet about it too.

When Jake and Sherry parted there was so many things left unsaid between them. 

But Sherry was a prisoner of the system that she believed was protecting lives. At least that was her hope. She wouldn't ask him to be the same. There was no telling what they would have done with Jake had he been brought here. She shuddered, remembering all the tests she endured first here in the US and then in China.

"We're all going," said Leon snapping her back to the conversation. "This is a matter for the DOS and the BSAA." He gave Sherry a knowing look.

"I don't get it, Sir," said Devon suddenly. "If she needs a bodyguard, I'll do it. We don't have to go find this guy. He's not one of us."

There was an embarrassed pause that was broken by Chris. The reality was, Devon was not one of them, sure he was a BSAA agent but he was the new guy. And there were things he simply would never be privy to. "He's a bit more than a body guard, Devon..."

Chris described the events in China six months ago. Most people knew about the outbreak. But he left out Jake's role in creating the vaccine for the C-Virus outbreak, and who his father was.

Devon was left with the impression that Muller had been instrumental in the mission. Also by the way Sherry blushed, he had been extremely important to Sherry.

Devon already hated the guy.


	3. Chapter 3

Leon and Claire stayed the night with Sherry. She had packed for the trip, Chris and Devon leaving to prepare their unit for immediate departure.

Leon sat on the couch. He knew Sherry was having the nightmares again. He could hear her moving around in her bed, tossing and turning. He took a shot of the whiskey in his cup.

Claire sat across from him in a chair, a tear dropping down her cheek as she heard Sherry start to scream in her sleep. And then, "No!"

"I'm going to wake her." Claire said, standing up and starting for the door.

"Don't." said Leon, leaping up and grabbing her arm. "They will start all over again if you do." He was still holding on to her arm and after an embarrassed glance at Claire who'd lifted an eyebrow released her and sat back down.

"She remembers them?"

"Yes."

"Is she going to counseling?"

"Yes, she was." Said Leon. "That didn't help, how do you get over the things they did to her?"

Claire shuddered hugging herself. She herself had had her own nightmares to deal with after escaping Raccoon City with Sherry and Leon. But she knew it was nothing compared to what Sherry had gone through AFTER she'd gotten out.

"That's what they did to her in there…that's what our own people did to her here as well. Although I don't believe they cut her open quite like what happened in China. She told me when she got back. I don't think she was expecting the nightmares. When they were running she and Jake didn't have time to think about what had happened." Leon paused for a moment. "I don't think he ever knew. He just got her out. There is no telling what he went through there."

"She felt it." It was a statement from Claire, not a question.

"Of course she did." Leon sighed. "Jake was there to get her out of so many scrapes. I think he was the first person to not see her as an experiment really. They stood shoulder to shoulder, he protected her, stayed behind even when she told him to run. They were close. She thought she lost him in there, and then he got her out again. But I don't think he knew about her experiments there."

"Why did he not come back with her?" Claire asked as the cries began to subside.

"Let the whole world know about him?" Leon said. "Sherry thought it was for the best. Believe me she knows more than any of us what would have happened to him. But with this new development he's in even greater danger now." He listened to the quiet for a moment. Sherry's dreams had subsided. "Get some sleep. The sooner we get to Jake; the sooner we can take the fight to them."

Claire nodded and stood to take the spare room across from Sherry's while Leon stretched out on the couch. She hesitated and looked back at Leon as closed his eyes and put his arms under his head. She'd always thought him handsome. Somehow they never ended up together unless they were shooting someone or something. She sighed and went to her room. So much for that normal day.


	4. Chapter 4

Jake had earned himself a substantial fan base in Yemen.

He stood in a dusty section of town wearing rough brown cloth over his face and body. Only his eyes were visible. 

Many of the buildings were abandoned due to the mutated creatures that had over run the area. Jake knew they were dealing with B.O.W.'s and this being perfectly in line with his abilities he simply showed up and started dealing with them. In reality it was the one thing he was really good at. No reason for him to quit now.  

"What do you suppose they are doing out here?" The tall dark haired woman named Mira whispered to Jake. They were watching someone walk down the street. Whoever they were had all the right clothes for the area as if they were trying to blend in, but walking out in the open like that? Jake shrugged it off. 

Definitely not from around here...

A local would have scuttled from door to door to avoid any B.O.W.'s. Plus there weren't many locals left. 

This individual did not seem to realize the danger they were in. He or she was dressed in a brown rough clothe similar to their own...but they kept scanning the area. 

They were looking for someone.

"No one we know," he said putting a finger to the trigger of his gun ready to fall back to familiar surroundings. Something about the way they moved caught his eye and he hesitated. There was something vaguely familiar about the individual in front of him. They were looking for something, but out in the open here is where you tended to get killed.

He heard Mira cock her gun, Muhammed was behind them readying his own guns to leave. For the past four months they'd fought with him against B.O.W.'s. He'd showed up here and simply started taking them out. After a few weeks some of the locals had joined him. He kept a tough image but Mira had seen him trade apples to kill monsters for the local children. He was tough and capable and faster than any fighter they'd ever seen. Under him they'd learned to take out the B.O.W.'s on their own. He'd taught them all the weak spots.

Mira herself had fought with him on several occasions and made it very clear that she was interested in him. In the past Jake would have taken her up on any offer and left it at that. But not since meeting Sherry Birkin. 

Damn it super girl for giving me a conscience.

He reminded himself to take her to task for that the next time he saw her.

He never opened himself that much to any of them. Muhammed told Mira he had photo in his pocket that he looked at every night. True, Mira had seen it herself she'd never put the girl in it together with Jake in a relationship. The photo was of a blonde girl with short cropped hair and blue eyes. It was also wrinkled because he looked at it a lot and kept it in his pocket.

Jake stared at the figure and couldn't shake the feeling that this was someone he knew. He suddenly called out to them both.

"Wait a minute." He began moving forward eyes locked on the brown robed figure. The face was also covered but around here in this dusty climate that wasn't necessarily an indication that they were female.

"Wait?" Said Mira surprised following him. 

Jake ignored them both and broke cover heading towards the individual who was much shorter than he was. Could it be?

"Hey!" Jake called out in Arabic moving closer to the individual. It was dangerous here, there were still plenty of B.O.W.s (Bio-Organic Weapons) to take out and he was never sure who the enemy was or who was an innocent civilian. The locals paid him in food to keep any B.O.W.s that kept popping up. It was pittance compared to what he used to make. He smirked at that as he moved closer to the person who had stopped and was just watching him come closer. Wouldn't Sherry be surprised now, especially considering he once demanded 50 million dollars for a pint of his blood?

And Sherry had made sure they'd given it to him too, that was the bad thing about it. He'd used some to get here and on occasion for weapons but touched very little of it. He still felt guilty for asking that much in the first place. Considering Sherry had honestly been trying to save the world. And him? He'd just been another mercenary trying to make a buck off of it until he had met her.

Stop thinking about her.

Her name struck a chord deep within him like it always did. He often wondered what she was doing now. It had been six months since they'd seen each other last. His going with her hadn't been option. They had both known that. He'd stolen a photo of her from a report, someone had snapped it of them climbing out of the base. It might have been selfish or silly but he didn't want to live without being able to see or remember her face. But he was never going to admit that to anyone else.

She'd saved him in more ways than she probably knew and he missed her terribly. She had wanted his freedom as a condition for his pint. Non-negotiable. He remembered her stealing the phrase he'd used on her for the money. The good bye had been the most difficult. She was not free to stay, and if he went with her he would have had to endure the same arrangements. She wanted to spare him that. God, he wanted to have just one more moment to hug her to him again. Tell her what she meant to him.

He shrugged the feelings away and concentrated on the current problem at hand. He would think about Sherry later. 

He always did.

"Hey don't you know how dangerous it is here?" He snapped out in Arabic.

"Jake?" The voice hit him like a punch to the gut. He reached up and snatched at the hood with one hand and grabbed the person's shoulder. As it fell away his mouth fell open in surprise. 

Wide blue eyes under close cropped blonde hair stared back at him in surprise. "Jake." She said again smiling in relief.

"Sherry?"

He crushed her to him in a hug. "What the hell?" He whispered, "I was just thinking about y-." He stopped, her face was still pressed to his chest as he squeezed her. 

"Hey," she said into his chest returning his embrace. They'd had a lot of close contact in Edonia, and then in China but they had never hugged just to hug. This she wasn't used to.

They had parted ways with a handshake. He had held her hand a little longer as If there was something he wanted to say. But in the end he gave her hand a squeeze and smiled at her ignoring anyone else. They had given him a blood draw and he after his wordless good bye to her he had left and watched a plane take her away. 

Now here he was again embracing her in a way he had never done previously. "Am I still asleep? What are you doing here?" He said pulling back and looking her in the face.

"You dreaming about me?" She said in a joking one. Her face tinged pink as she said it. 

He didn't answer and his face flushed slightly. A growling sound saved him from making a reply. It was coming from behind him. He instantly knew it was a strelat; a lizard type creature that came out of the numerous chrysalids all over the area. They were so numerous around here in these abandoned areas that Jake encountered them on a daily basis. They also had an annoying habit of throwing spikes in your direction if you didn't kill them quickly enough. He had a few new scars to show for it.

He glanced at it and yanked Sherry close to him and the other arm jerking up with a gun faster than Sherry's eyes could see. He fired into the creature's face as it opened its mouth to spew acid in their direction.

Then he was moving her away from it as it died. In its death throes it would still spew acid but he hoped it wouldn't mutate again. A good head shot would bring it down but leaving the brain intact left you open to an even worse mutation.

"Jake you can put me down now, I am armed," Sherry gasped. She was feeling a little smothered and he was half carrying her, half dragging her along against his chest.

"Sorry," He was still squeezing her against his chest. He relaxed his hold on her still scanning the area just in case they had attracted the attention of anything else.

"Jake who is this?" Mira called from behind him in Arabic. He had forgotten they were there. He turned to her, she was frowning staring at the girl he'd just wrapped his arms around. 

That he still had his arm wrapped around. 

Muhammed jogged up behind her wearing a puzzled expression. This was a side of Jake they had never seen.

"This is Sherry," said Jake hesitantly in Arabic to them. He didn't want too many to know about her just as not many people knew about him. He turned back to her.

"I thought I put you safely on a plane out of China and back to the states," he said switching to English and stepping back to look at her. Her hair had grown a little longer but she was still the short petite blonde he remembered. He still had his hand on her arm, never fully releasing his grip.

"And let you have all the fun?" Sherry smiled. She looked around. "Plenty to go around isn't there?"

"You know super girl, I was attempting to keep a low profile." He lifted an eyebrow at her, the unspoken, "Why are you here?" did not go unnoticed by her.

"You call being the most successful person to take out B.O.W.s a low profile? The BSAA knew it was you out here. No one else can take them out like you've been doing."

"You keeping tabs on me?" He said half grinning. This time Sherry blushed.

"No..." She started, her face red. She dropped her gaze quickly.

"Just doing what I'm good at," he said staring at her. "It is so good to see you again. I..." He hesitated.

"Good to see you too," Sherry whispered quickly in a low voice that only he heard. He nodded suddenly very aware that they were not alone. He glanced back half guilty, half hoping Mira and Muhammed would take the hint and leave.

"Perhaps we should take this visit elsewhere?" interrupted Mira, not taking the hint at all. Jake had not released this girl yet, and he had let his guard down too much with her standing there.

"She's right," Jake nodded. Muhammed ran ahead, his shot gun ready. Mira turned away and started to follow.

"Is she safe to learn about our place?" Mira questioned him. Jake nodded, and Sherry noted the way the woman looked at him. She wondered if there was something between them. If there was she was going to feel horribly guilty about what she was about to ask Jake to do. A twinge of jealousy worked its way through.

Instantly, she was comparing the two of them, she was short with close cropped hair...and nothing special. Mira on the other hand was gorgeous with dark brown eyes, tan skin and long flowing black hair that she kept halfway under a veil. Sherry suspected the veil was some sort of formality as her long hair hung down out of the back of it towards her bottom. Infected can't grab my short hair, Sherry reasoned. Then mentally berated herself for feeling jealous. It had been her decision to leave him behind. They had never started anything

Jake towered over all of them as he followed after Muhammed and pulled her after him. She stared up at the back of his head craning her neck up, she had forgotten how tall he was.

He had yet to release Sherry, he was still holding her hand, as if he let go she'd disappear again. Mira saw this and frowned even more.

Muhammed gave a few short knocks on a door in an intricate pattern and then ran inside. They followed and Sherry was surprised to find herself in a small but clean room. Inside were crammed several teenage boys, several loads of weapons and themselves. The boys struck Sherry as they weren't the kind of boys she'd encountered in the states, but ones who'd seen war and their eyes reflected the fact that they'd grown up too quickly. The room itself was decorated with rugs and cushions, a few short tables and a bathroom.

"Adan, Elian, Aharon," Jake called a greeting to them in Arabic. "How's the fort?"

"Still loaded Mr. Jake," the tallest one called back eyeing Sherry curiously.

He led Sherry to the corner aware that everyone was staring at them.

Muhammed leaned to Mira and whispered quietly to her. "It's her from Mr. Jake's picture." Mira sucked in her breath hard.

"I know!" She retorted miserably in Arabic. She shot Muhammed a hard look hoping he would not to say another word about it.

Across the room Jake wondered if they were aware at how good his hearing was. He shot Muhammed a look with an eyebrow raised to let him know that he'd been heard. Muhammed's face turned red and he glanced down at the floor.

"This isn't a social call though is it?" He said turning back to Sherry and studying her for a moment. He spoke in a low voice aware that every ear in the room was straining to hear what they were talking about. "Why are you really here?"

That stung her although it was the truth. She would not have come looking for him otherwise. She turned away for a moment thinking about what she was going to say next.

That was how it was with him though. If he had his own super power, it was that he could always tell when she was holding something back. He reached over and slowly turned her around with one hand on her shoulder with a raised eyebrow. "Super girl, tell me." He said gently.

"No, I don't get many social calls," she said smiling sadly up at him. "You know that. But this one I took specifically to find you. I want you to come work with me..."

"No." That was Mira from across the room. She understood enough English to know what Sherry was asking. Jake turned and glanced at her and then back at Sherry.

"Give us a minute guys," he said to the rest of the room. He gripped Sherry by the shoulder again and steered her outside the door into the alley where they were alone.

"What's going on?" He said pointedly. He knew she wouldn't have come looking for him unless she had a reason, and that reason would have to be pretty fucking bad. After all she had left to keep him a secret. She wouldn't be here now if it the danger was not real. "You saving the world again?" He said it jokingly hoping to lighten her mood.

"Neo-Umbrella is looking for you...well us." She said earnestly, looking into his face and then glancing away again.

"Aren't they always," he muttered turning away for a moment before turning back to her. "I've done alright so far," he said. He stared at her. Something wasn't right, there was something she was leaving out. "What are you not telling me?"

"The lab we escaped from...they took our samples, and..." She hesitated her eyes dropped down.

"What?" Here it comes, the punchline.

"They were using it to make a new virus strain. One, they are calling the Immortality Virus."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me?" He laughed covering the anger that suddenly swelled up. "They couldn't come up with a better name than that?" This is China all over again.

"Jake this is serious. If they get their hands on us, it's going to be much worse than China was." She shuddered. She had been thinking along the same lines that he was.

He shot a dark look at her as he started pacing in front of her, one black gloved hand scratching the back of his neck.

"You found me," he said stopping and leveling a look at her. "Trouble follows you around you know. What if they used you to get to me?"

"We found you FIRST." She protested. It hurt, what he had just said to her. Mostly because when she'd left him confused about her own feelings for him, she managed to convince herself that this was the best way for him to remain a free man. Now she was back...back to what? Capture him? Cage him? They needed to warn him, but what did that mean for him?

"No.... but someone in the group might." Jake was thinking fast. "I've only got one contact in this phone you got me. You." He started pacing again in front of her, one hand on his chin, the other flexing at his side.

She blushed when she heard that.

"But," he went on, "I've been staying off the grid. Letting Jake Muller fade into history. I like life on my own terms, not Neo-Umbrella's. Not the BSAA's I'm not their fucking guinea pig. Remember?"

"Yes, I remember." She muttered looking down at the ground to hide her smile at his outburst. This was the Jake she remembered and trusted. Temperamental, his language colorful, yet he could always be counted on in the thick of things. "We wanted you to work with us, as an agent, in the Division of Security Operations, where I work..." She was starting to ramble when he still hadn't responded.

He stopped pacing and faced her. "As an agent."

"Jake, I know—"

"Fine." It was brusque and to the point. He stared at her for a moment with one eyebrow raised, waiting for her to argue. He knew she would because he knew that she wasn't expecting it to be so easy.

"But-?" Her eyes widened. The protest she was about to make died on her lips and for once she had nothing to say back. He grinned at her sudden discomfiture.

Suddenly the door opened and Mira rushed out followed by Muhammed. "Jake you cannot just go! We need you here." She spoke in rapid Arabic giving Sherry a searing glance and then staring at Jake, begging, imploring him to stay with them.

"Mira—" Jake started, uncomfortable.

"We need you," she repeated. "I, I need you."

Sherry looked away. She didn't have a clue as to what they were saying but she understood the look enough to hurt for the girl who was obviously in love with Jake. Again she felt a twinge of jealousy. What if they were in a relationship?

Jake put that notion to rest quickly enough.

Jake put his hands on Mira's shoulders. "No, you don't need me. You guys have been taking B.O.W.'s out on your own for a while now."

"You don't care for me at all do you?" Mira asked, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

"Not in the way you want me to," Jake said. He was blunt and he knew it hurt her but that was his way and there really was not a good way to soften the blow. She dropped her head down lower and then broke away from him and ran away down the alley. Jake stared after her for a moment, he felt guilty. Damn it Sherry, you had to go and give me a conscience?

Muhammed stepped forward then. Behind him the other boys were watching the scene with interest. "She'll never forgive you for breaking her heart," he said glancing worriedly after Mira.

"No," said Jake looking Muhammed in the face. "But you might."

Muhammed glanced up at Jake in surprise and then nodded as a smile broke out over his face. He reached out clasped Jake's arm and Jake knew he had guessed right about the younger man.

"Where will you go? Vacation?" he asked Jake, grinning.

"Nah," said Jake in Arabic, looking at Sherry. "Where that one goes, trouble is usually not far behind, much worse than anything we've faced here so far. This here has been cakewalk compared to what she and I went through together."

Muhammed's eyes opened wider as he snuck a glance at Sherry. "My friend, I pity your choice of women."

"Don't," said Jake smiling. "You know how much I like trouble. Tell the boys I'm still off fighting something even worse."

"You weren't kidding about the trouble were you?" Muhammed asked sobering.

"No," said Jake. "Go find Mira, tell her how much you love her."

Muhammed nodded and then trotted off down the alley after Mira. She had been armed when she left but this still was not the best place to be out alone.

Jake had grown fond of these kids while he was here. Although they really weren't that much younger than he was. He hoped they would make it, but they didn't need him any longer. He'd make sure they got what they needed to continue fighting. Muhammed and Mira were both capable leaders. Not kids then, he corrected himself.

Plus, they were probably safer without whatever was hunting him this time finding him here.

Jake started walking in the opposite direction and turned back to Sherry. "You coming?"

"After you." She replied taking his extended hand.


	5. Chapter 5

There was a sudden movement in front of him. Another Strelat, but before he moved two shots rang out and a bullet caught the creature in the face and it dropped down in front of him, acid spilling out towards his boots. He took a step back and looked back at her, her own gun was still up and pointed past him where the creature had been standing.

"Not bad for a girl." He said a grin spreading across his face. This was more like it. "Are we going to have to fight our way to the rendezvous…. Again?"

"Maybe," She conceded lifting an eye brow. "Is that a problem?"

He snorted. "Of course not. You should remember that I get a kick out of this," They started up the street. He still couldn't quite believe she was there, but might as well take out as many B.O.W.s as they could on their way out. No reason to let his friends have all the fun.

She had listened to Jake speak in fluent Arabic to the young man here, whatever he'd said had both saddened and made the young man happy. She added Arabic to the list of languages she knew he had learned. He had picked up Cantonese Chinese in less than 6 month's time, by the time they had escaped the facility in China he could read and speak it fluently. All while being held captive. 

Jake turned around and studied Sherry again. He'd been waiting for a reason to see her, and this was as good as any. He wasn't about to turn her down and say no, and he was perfectly capable of disappearing again, if he had to.

"So which way Super girl?" He said holding out a gloved hand.

"Are you sure you can just leave them?" Sherry asked suddenly. They'd gone a few blocks away. The streets were deserted and the air was hot. There was no breeze. Every step made a sound. The heat was barely tolerable. She was sure that they could be heard for miles. She had been following Jake through the streets listening hard for any more of the "strelats."

Jake had assured her there was always more.

"I didn't just leave them," he snapped back, feeling irritated. The truth was he'd left them a huge stash of weapons. His money had gone towards buying weapons, surprisingly an easy find in the Middle east. Especially now that people had gone from fighting each other to fleeing the creatures set loose on them. A few stayed behind to attempt to contain them. He also planned on making sure the BSAA kept a presence here. The agency had its uses after all. Boyscouts… He thought.

Jake had simply gone back to what he knew how to do after Sherry had left. Although he charged significantly less. He'd grown up fighting, it was what he was good at. Thanks to the C-Virus injection he'd grown stronger, faster and become more than a match for the creatures Neo-Umbrella had unleashed on the world. He wasn't sure he could do anything else.

He couldn't find a cause for his sudden irritation. He had been fighting for months against these things. Trying to forget her.

And now here she was, and he could not figure out what to say to her. Yes, he had agreed to come but now what?

A low growl brought him out of his revelry and he swung towards the sound. He had barely heard it and knew Sherry had missed it. His gun was already raised above Sherry's head behind her.

"Shit." He muttered when he saw the Napad. Napads were a different game altogether. They were strong, fast, and they had a hard shell on the outside of their bodies that needed to be cracked before you could even get to their soft insides to kill them. They walked on two legs although that is where the similarity between themselves and the humans they had once been ended.

Normally he could do this with a club, but he hadn't seen a Napad in a while and did not think they would have encountered one on their way out. He didn't want to waste bullets on it if he didn't have to.

Sherry spotted the creature ambling towards them. Taking it in, she was familiar with the creations of Neo-Umbrella on a level most people would never be. She hesitated for a moment. "Any ideas?"

"Run?" He suggested grabbing her hand. "Let's hope we don't attract anything else right now." He pulled her along behind him almost jerking her off of her feet. Compared to him she might as well have weighed nothing and it was all she could do keep her feet as he jerked her along behind him. His eyes scanned their surroundings as they went. He needed something heavy to drop on the creature.

"We've left traps," he yelled to Sherry behind him. "One might work as far as disabling it."

The Napad was still behind them getting much closer, Sherry imagined she could feel its hot breath on her and dared not look back. And then Jake spotted what he was looking for and angled towards it.

"This is going to happen fast so be ready!" He yelled.

"Wha-?" She started and he jerked her down to the ground and pulled her through a hole, the sound of claws behind them and he had them both up and had turned to the wall and grabbed a rope with one hand and waited, still holding her hand with his other.

The creature did not make them wait long. Sherry glanced rapidly around the room and noticed for the first time it was a small building and above the entrance were concrete bricks, large stones, whatever was heavy and could fit held up by a few boards. She began to make sense of his trap.

The Napad pushed its huge ugly body in and Jake without hesitation pulled the rope. The whole contraption gave way and a sickening crunch sounded out as well as a screeching wail form the Napad. It struggled underneath the pile, its huge claws digging gouges into the ground.

Letting go of Sherry's hand Jake rushed around the grappling claws and its head and grabbed the cracked outer shell that was exposed and pulled. It gave with a loud crack and he threw the piece away and pulled out his gun and started firing into the soft insides. He was aiming for the pulsing white organ underneath that seemed to be the heartbeat of the creature. It imploded as he shot it and the creature gave a loud shrill whine, and grew still. The sudden quiet was deafening.

"That was…" Sherry started.

"Shhhh!" Jake said, listening hard. "Come on, the body will attract more. Let's hope they like this dinner better than us."

Sherry grimaced. "They eat each other?"

"Well they have to eat something." He said matter-of-factly. He was in his element, his adrenaline was pumping as he opened a door and peered out.

"Are there more of them?" She asked.

He paused. "Haven't seen a Napad in a few weeks. Mostly Strelats." He glanced over at her. "Ready?"

"Ready."

It was quiet. But the creature would attract others who might have heard the chase. Strelats would give way to any Napad in the vicinity. The body would start to disintegrate as it broke down. He had not figured out why that happened but it made clean up easier. If the others found it before that happened they tended to rip it to pieces. He wondered if it disintegrated inside them after they ate it.

They heard a few other shots in the distance but did not run into anything else as they neared their destination.

"There it is!" Said Sherry with some relief in her voice.

"The rendezvous," Jake finished, smiling at her. "About damned time."


	6. Chapter 6

Leon met them at the gates of the city. He and Jake shook hands. Jake always had the most respect for Leon since they'd met. "Knew she'd be the one to find you." He said, looking them over. They were both covered in grime and blood. Jake had what looked like a small burn on his right arm.

"What happened?"

"Nothing we couldn't handle," Jake responded with grin at Sherry.

Leon looked at Sherry up and down. He was fully aware that she could self-heal but he still felt protective over her after bringing her out of Raccoon City when she was a kid. She didn't seem the worse for wear. Her gear was still fully intact, although she'd lost the brown robe she had insisted on wearing.

"Oh yeah?" said Leon raising an eye brow at Sherry's small tiny hand in Jake's large one. Jake glanced down not even realizing that he was still holding her hand.

Jake let go of Sherry's hand immediately with a little regret.

Leon turned away from them, hiding a grin, and motioned to Chris Redfield in the back with some other BSAA agents. They'd been looking at a map, but when Chris spotted Jake he picked up a radio and started calling his units back in.

"Target acquired, be advised, return to base camp."

Jake scowled when he saw Chris Redfield and the other BSAA agents but didn't talk or look at them. He wanted to be alone with Sherry but he could tell that this wasn't going to happen anytime soon. He almost missed the time they were running for their lives frantically, or even just one moment in the cabin where she was describing her friends to him. She was so animated about it that she even managed to look him in the face without flinching. She'd been so beautiful to him in that moment, even if five minutes later he was shielding her body from the barrage of bullets being shot into the cabin.

As he stood there awkwardly wondering if he had made a mistake a pretty brunette approached and stood next to Leon. She also shook his hand warmly. "I'm Claire Redfield," she offered.

"Yeah, yeah, BSAA guy's sister." He turned to Sherry for confirmation. "Right?"

Sherry nodded. "Sherry's told me all about you saving her from Raccoon City."

Claire only nodded and then grinned conspiratorially at him.

"Did she tell you she wanted to have you come work for the Division of Security Operations?" Claire asked smiling.

"Yeah she did," he replied glancing over at Sherry again. She had gone beet red, her hands balled into little fists.

Claire came closer and dropped to low voice and still smiling at him. "Did she mention it was her idea?"

"Claire!" Sherry said, feeling horrified. She couldn't look at Jake now. Completely mortified she had no idea that Jake was shooting a grin at Claire over her head.

"No, Super girl here, left that part out." Jake suddenly felt warm from head to toe. If it was her idea, then he was more than ready to jump on it.

Claire studied Jake's features for a moment the grin leaving her face. There was something familiar about him. "Have we met?" She said suddenly.

Jake was surprised, definitely Redfield's sister, he thought looking down at her. Because he was used to being so blunt he said the first thing that popped into his mind. "Wesker was my father if that's who you were thinking of."

Sherry gasped and Claire took a step back and before anyone could stop her, she drew her firearm. Just as quickly Sherry was in front of Jake with her arms raised. "No Claire!"

But it was Chris who really surprised Jake. He was suddenly there out of nowhere between Jake, Sherry, and the gun. Jake behind both of them was surprised at how many people seemed ready to take a bullet for him today. No one else had been nearby to hear what was said although several guns were now drawn, no one was sure who to target.

Jake vaguely remembered Sherry mentioning that his relationship to Wesker was supposed to be top secret.

Oops.

"Move Chris," Claire said. She was still studying his features hard now that she could see the resemblance. "Since when did Wesker have a son?"

Leon came up next to her. "I don't know, but he did."

Quietly Chris reached up and put his hand on the gun. "He's not a Wesker," he said in a low tone looking his sister in the face. "He's a Muller, he never even knew his father. And he did save the world last time I met him." Chris added that on for good measure. Claire didn't know all of the details just yet, but he figured she would soon.

"Saved the w-" Claire started as she let her brother lower her gun. Claire knew a little about Sherry's mission in China. She didn't know that Jake was Albert Wesker's son. Claire had had her own run-ins with Wesker. They had left their mark. Wesker having a son was the most ludicrous thing anyone could have said to her in that moment.

Behind Chris, Sherry had turned to glare at Jake, who shrugged and raised a hand to scratch the back of his head. He looked apologetic. "Sorry," he muttered. He refused to look at Chris though. While he knew his father was a real piece of work he had yet to hear the details of their encounter.

Leon interjected into the midst. "I hate to break up the meet and greet but we do need to get out of here." Just like that the tension broke. Leon placed himself between Claire and Jake and put a hand under her elbow. He walked her away from Jake and Sherry Chris after nodding to them both also headed back towards his unit.

"When was anyone going to tell me about him?" She hissed.

"It was top secret." Leon shrugged. "Also we never figured on dragging him out of the middle east again."

"Sherry is my friend." Snapped Claire. "I was there with you when we pulled her out of Raccoon City. You don't think I would have come running if she was throwing herself into danger with, with-"

Leon took a step back. "She isn't in danger from him. Trust me on this one, Claire. We need him. And Chris is right, he did save the world last time, and he did it willingly. He's not Albert Wesker, he's nothing like him."

"Really," said Claire sarcastically. "So he's just after Sherry for his own personal reasons?"

Leon suddenly grinned and started laughing even though he knew Claire was being serious. "You could say that." He said shooting a glance over at Sherry and smiling.

Claire's eyes followed. A moment ago she was giving Sherry a hard time, but now she was sure this new kid was the last person Sherry needed. "I don't trust him." She said finally.

"I do." Leon replied giving her a hard look. "He's earned it."


	7. Chapter 7

They took their own plane back to the US.

Sherry got up to use the restroom leaving Jake, Leon, and Claire alone. Leon gave Claire a measured look and she got up too. The look wasn't missed by Jake. Claire was still uncomfortable with him. She had positioned herself in a seat across from him where she could see him at all times. While everyone else had relaxed her eyes had kept darting back to Jake noting the similarities between him and his father. The long nose and chin, piercing blue eyes. He was even the same height, his long legs stretching out in front of him.

Jake for the most part had managed to ignore her as he sat next to Sherry. They hadn't spoken much once they were on the plane. But they were both exhausted as well.

After Sherry and Claire were both gone he looked at Leon. "So what are they really after?"

"Both of you." Said Leon. "Although I'm not sure what they are doing, just something down the grapevine."

"Who is the grapevine?" Jake guessed this was a specific person but Leon didn't add anything else

Leon grinned. "Trade secrets."

Jake shook his head. "I said I was done being their guinea pig. No fucking labs." Jake gave Leon a look suddenly suspicious. "Or the American governments labs." He said suddenly thinking of Sherry.

"No," Leon responded. "No one knows about you, you're just good at your job and you are being 'hired.'"

"Hired."

"An attempt was made to abduct Sherry," Leon said. "Someone new is at the helm, and once again money is being fed into the machine that grinds those damn monsters out."

"No shit, they're dumping them all over Yemen like it's a fucking playground." Jake responded. He stiffened. "You want me to be a body guard for Sherry?"

"No…" Said, Leon smiling. "But Sherry will be safer with you. That's the real reason I want you here. We trust you with her. And we need your help to figure out what's going on. You two are each other's best option for getting out of this alive. They've suddenly turned up the heat to get to her. There's talk about mixing your samples. I want to know why."

Jake shrugged. "Why? Who cares, I think they've interfered in our lives for long enough."

Leon nodded but then smirked. "I don't think you're going to turn down this job. The down payment is you get to see Sherry."

Jake looked at him sharply and said nothing. God he hated how much that man saw. They sat silently for a few minutes until Claire and Sherry returned from the restrooms.

"What did I miss?" Sherry asked quietly, yawning as she sat.

"Leon, here was just filling me in on the latest developments," he paused. "Speaking of which, when we touch down, where am I going?" No one had discussed this yet. Jake didn't have much, they had actually stopped and bought him some clothes before they left. Jake had felt odd about having so much at once, but Sherry had assured it that was normal. Being a mercenary was so much simpler than being a civilian.

"Hunnigan may have said Sherry was in charge of getting you settled," said Leon hiding a smile.

Sherry turned red again and made no reply. Clair scowled.

Jake shot Leon a dark look another thinking, yeah I hate you definitely.


	8. Chapter 8

"I don't get it," Devon was complaining to Chris later on a separate flight. They were flying back with the rest of the Chris's unit to the states having acquired their "target." Most of them assumed the guy was being rescued and had information necessary for their mission.

"If he needs to be guarded, why aren't we watching him?" Devon continued.

Chris smiled. "Oh I wouldn't say he needs to be guarded by us per se. I've seen him in action, I think a body guard would just get in the way of him defending himself. Or Sherry for that matter. Quite a few that worked for Neo-Umbrella got in the way."

"I could take him."

Chris looked surprised at Devon's words. "No…he's here to help. And no you couldn't. I'm not sure even I could…and I took on Wesker."

"But still, he sounds dangerous."

"He is," said Chris. "But not to Sherry."

"He doesn't seem to like you all that much." Devon observed.

Chris looked surprised that he'd noticed. "Saw that did you? I killed someone…someone he knew." Chris finished, not getting into Jake's parentage.

Devon digested this. "Bad guy though?"

"Yeah," said Chris warily. Devon was smart and Chris did not like the conclusion he saw the young man coming to.

"So this guy could be in with some bad people." Devon was grasping at anything to use against Jake.

"No."

Devon was surprised at Chris's short response. "No?"

"No, and that's all there is to it. What is this about?" Chris faced Devon and looked him in the eye. Jealousy, he realized. The agent was jealous. Chris had not stopped to ponder the younger man's infatuation with Sherry. He realized the jokes from the rest of the members should have let him know the "crush" was more than just that. It seemed harmless before, but now with Jake back in the picture.

"I don't believe you should even try pursuing Sherry." He said finally, knowing he had hit the problem head on when Devon's face twisted.

"I'm not good enough for her?" Devon said, starting to get angry.

"I didn't say that. But I don't want her to get hurt."

"Hurt by me?"

"Yes, if you pursue it. This isn't exactly the time for romantic entanglements."

"She likes that guy?" Devon deflated a little. He was already predisposed to not like Jake Muller. But this made it worse.

"I don't know," said Chris honestly. "But what they went through together, you need to give that time. You don't just get over it."

Devon sat there and Chris patted him on the shoulder. "She's like a little sister to me. And I wouldn't let Jake anywhere near her if I thought he was going to hurt her," he said. "Truth is; he can protect her better than any of us can."

I'll bet, Devon thought. Hatred rising to the forefront. He muttered to himself, "first time he's a threat to Sherry, I'm dropping him."

"What did you say?" Christ said turning back.

"I said, if he's not a threat to Sherry, then he better do his damn job." Devon said in the most respectful tone he could muster.

"He will," said Chris. "Don't worry."


	9. Chapter 9

Leon checked them all into two separate rooms, himself and Jake, and Claire and Sherry together. Jake almost pointed out that he and Sherry had spent a lot of time alone together and nothing happened but restrained himself at the last minute. Leon had had a call from Ada and after dropping his stuff, he left the room to talk with her.

Jake lingered with Sherry in their room sitting at the one table in the room across from Claire. Sherry sat at the end of her bed in front of Jake.

"It's late," Claire started, "why don't you just go to bed. We're fine here."

"I wanted to talk to Sherry for a minute," Jake started.

Claire cut him off. "It's late."

"I can speak for myself," Sherry said to the two who were staring daggers at each other across the table.

"I don't trust you." Claire said, ignoring Sherry altogether.

"You don't have to," said Jake flicking his gaze to Sherry who was standing up with an angry expression on her face.

Claire studied Jake from across the table. "How would you like to have been held by an insane man who wanted to use you as bait so he could kill your brother?" She snapped. "And I'm just supposed to just trust you? I've never met a Wesker that wasn't bad. You don't know what they've cost me." She stopped. "Are you going to be the first good one?"

Sherry put a hand on Jake's arm but he stood up from the table shaking her off. Any anger he had before had grown to rage. "And how," he snapped," would you like it if everyone judged you just because some asshole happened to contribute to your DNA, some asshole by the way, that I've never even met and didn't know until she-" he turned and jabbed a finger at Sherry, "shows up in my town and lets me know. I was perfectly fine being a mercenary until you guys showed up."

"Jake…" Sherry started.

"No," Jake said. "You were right to leave me behind." He turned and walked out of the room leaving Sherry behind with Claire.

"Sherry," Claire said rising, "Let him go."

"Don't," said Sherry. She turned to face Claire, her closest friend, mentor, and rescuer. "He's not any different from me Claire."

"He's nothing like you Sherry," Claire said.

"He's just like me!" Sherry said suddenly, stepping back from Claire. "And you know what? He did save the world, willingly. He saved my neck more times than I can count. Even though he knows I can self-heal he still threw himself over me." She stopped. "I don't expect you to understand, Claire, you weren't there. But if you don't trust him, trust me. Trust your brother Chris. Jake doesn't even like him, but Chris trusts him."

Claire didn't respond at first, because she suddenly understood. She knew what it was like to fall for someone, especially after you'd fought with them. She also knew what it was to lose them too, too soon before anything could really happen between you. That part of her ached and she suspected it always would. She quashed the memories away before they could show up on her face.

Still the only thing that Jake had against him was his father.

Sherry turned around without another word and left the room before any tears could come in front of Claire. She opened the door and turned to the right only to run blindly into Jake's chest.

He put both hands on her shoulders to steady her. "Whoa…you ok?"

"I should be asking you that." She responded blinking her tears away as relief washed over her. He was still here.

He shrugged. "You don't hate me, remember? That helps."

Sherry studied him. Only a moment ago he was filled with rage, now he just looked tired. "It's late," she finally said. "Maybe we should turn in."

Jake scratched the back of his head, something he did when he was slightly embarrassed. "I may have left my room key…in my room. Get it for me? Save me from facing the dragon lady in there?"

Sherry snickered and felt guilty when she did it. "She's not that bad. And you'll grow on her."

Jake shrugged, "not if she fucking shoots me first. Could happen."

Sherry grinned. "Be right back." She ducked into the room and heard the shower running. Great she wouldn't have to run into Claire. She quickly made her way to the door connecting their rooms and swiped his key off the night stand. Opening his door she came out and handed him the card.

"Thanks," he said again.

She turned to him as she started to go back into her own room. "Don't wander off too far."

"Same goes for you Super Girl," he said as he disappeared inside his room, a smile on his scarred face.


	10. Chapter 10

Jake tried to sleep, first kicking off the blankets, turning the air down as low as he could get it, and finally covering back up. Leon wasn't in so there was no one to complain if he tried to get the room as chilly as home.  

He had not been able to get much time alone with Sherry since they'd left the Middle East. He wasn't sure if that was by design or just rotten bad luck. He hated the way they were treating her though. Jake had seen Sherry battle through countless hordes of J'Avo. Why were they so protective of her now? There was something they weren't telling him yet. He meant to get Sherry alone so he could ask her face to face. Sherry wasn't able to keep secrets. She had the worst poker face he'd ever seen. 

Jake was stretched out on his Queen sized bed half dozed when he heard he heard Sherry start to scream.

"What the hell?" He grabbed his side arm from the night stand, rolled out of bed, ran and grabbed the door knob that led to the adjoining the room and threw the door open gun up and ready to meet whatever threat was in the room.

Claire pulled her gun on him clearly startled by his sudden appearance. With a flick of his wrist, and small amount of annoyance, he disarmed her, only half paying attention to her and looking around the room. Claire never even had a chance to pull the trigger. She was momentarily shocked by how quickly it had happened and how he had dismissed her just as fast.

He turned to Sherry tossing Claire's glock back at her as he did so. She caught it and aimed it at his broad shoulders, but he made no further move toward her.

Sherry was laying in her bed, tangled in her blankets, crying out in her sleep.

"What's going on?" He said whispering, placing his own sidearm on the night stand next to Sherry's bed and standing over her worry and concern on his face.

Claire was stunned for a moment. She was still having a hard time reconciling the fact that this was Albert Wesker's son and he genuinely seemed to care about Sherry. He ignored the fact that she was still aiming a gun at him.

Slowly she lowered the and placed it back into the nightstand next to her bed. He wasn't a threat, she admitted to herself. At least not at the moment.

"You both were experimented on, well I'm assuming you know she heals." Claire said getting up to stand next to him.

"Yeah? So?" Jake wasn't sure where she was going with this, although a deep suspicion began to grow in the back of his mind. Claire only confirmed it.

"Well, they took it further with her, cut her to see how far she could heal. They never gave her any painkillers. Before you both got out, they were basically torturing her physically over and over to see how far she could come back from."

Jake shuddered, suddenly nauseous. He remembered pulling shrapnel from her back believing at the time that she would bleed to death, and her cries of pain as the wound closed over. The amount of blood that had leached out of her then, he was so sure she was going to die and leave him alone in the snow. To put her through that repeatedly on purpose made his blood boil.

"She never mentioned it." He said, watching Sherry twist and turn in her sleep. The truth was Sherry had never had the time to talk about what happened to her, she'd been brief when he asked her about it. Saying it was just as "shitty" the second time around. There wasn't time to be more specific. He'd had his blood drawn more times than he could count, but he didn't endure anything near what she had gone through. They'd escaped and then separated by the necessity to keep him a secret. They never discussed what they'd put her through. He wished they had.

His hands were in fists at his sides clenching and unclenching. Claire had taken a step back from him.

And then Sherry started calling his name. "Jake! Where are you?"

This was too damn much.

"Don't wake her!" Claire whispered, grabbing his arm as he started forward. "The dreams just start over again if you do, as soon as she goes to sleep. This is what it is like every night for her."

"Every night?" He paused. How the hell was she holding it together? He watched her twist again and then started forward shaking Claire off his arm. "Look lady, that is MY name she's calling. And if she needs me, she's getting me. Trust me I owe her that much."

"But—"

"No freakin' buts—" Jake lay down next to Sherry, ignoring Claire completely, and took both of Sherry's thrashing arms in his. "Super girl I'm here," he said into her ear, "and I'm never leaving you. It's all right." He'd never comforted anyone this way before and it felt awkward.

"Jake…you're ok." Sherry whispered, she stopped thrashing and relaxed against him but she didn't wake up. She was drenched but Jake pretended not to notice. He debated on turning the AC in this room down again, but he didn't want to wake Sherry up. 

Claire watched this scene unfold with mixed emotions. She still couldn't get over the same features that Jake and Wesker shared. The long nose, chin, and thin lips. Same blue eyes, but Jake had red hair to Wesker's blond. A long scar marked his left cheek. That his life had been hard there was no doubt. She would have to ask Leon to fill her in about it.

"You should have come back with her." She whispered from behind him. 

 _I would have if I had known._ He thought. "…and you'd have welcomed me with open arms?" Jake snapped over his shoulder. "Sherry knew what she was doing. Apparently she was right. Besides, the only good Wesker is a dead Wesker, right?" He dropped his head down and didn't say another word. He didn't bother to look at her or even care if she was still in the room. Sherry had wrapped an arm around his chest and he wasn't about to wake her now that she was quiet. He curled around her on top of the blankets taking care not to crush her.

Claire was silent. She went to his bed and grabbed his blanket came back and draped it over him.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Sure, whatever, my father was a dick. I get that." said Jake closing his eyes. He was exhausted, suffering way too much jet lag, and way too comfortable at the moment to do anything else but drop to sleep himself.

 _Sherry what the hell did they do to you?_ He found himself wondering.


	11. Chapter 11

Sherry woke up with a start. She dreamed about Jake but instead of him disappearing in her nightmare, per usual, he'd called back to her saying "I'm right here." She smiled, for the first time in a while she felt rested upon awakening. 

She was suddenly aware that someone was next to her in the bed. An arm was draped over waist!

"What the?" She jerked away and realized it was Jake sleeping next to her with an arm thrown protectively around her. She had been curled up into his chest with her back to him.

He startled awake when she jerked and rolled off the bed landing on his back with a thud. "Jesus Sherry!" He rubbed his head and winced.

"Jake?" she said pulling the blanket around herself. She was in her pajamas but she still felt exposed.

"Look I'm sorry," he said. "But you were yelling and all that, and calling me and I told you it was ok, and you stopped." He yawned and sat up rubbing the back of his head. "Next time I'm listening to Claire."

"You saw that?" Sherry asked suddenly…"I mean, I have nightmares…"

"Yeah you did," said Jake. "Except till now, my head is fucking killing me."

"Sorry," said Sherry awkwardly.

He stood up and looked down and realized his shirt was off.

There was an awkward silence between them until Claire chose that moment to enter the room. "Oh I see you're both awake." She looked at them both. "I was going to wake you. Leon, Chris, and Devon are all downstairs in the lobby."

"Give us a minute," said Sherry. "We'll be right down." Her face was bright red and she kept her eyes averted towards the floor.

Claire after making sure Sherry was ok, with a quick glance turned and left the room. The awkward silence continued.

"Jake," she started, she wanted to explain but wasn't sure how.

"I'm sorry," he moved towards the adjoining door. "But it was all I could think of."

"Thank you."

"Thank you?" He wasn't sure he heard her right.

"Yes."

"Well…. you're welcome." He grunted and looked down. "Let's uh get ready and meet the others downstairs…" He turned towards the door. "What was that anyway?"

"Memories…" she whispered, half to herself. Staring at nothing. It was a haunted look, and Jake hated seeing it on her face.

Jake decided not to press her about them right now. As much as he wanted to, it was not the time or place for it.

He moved into his own room and threw on a black shirt and jeans they'd gotten him when he arrived. He ripped the price tags off. America, he thought. He'd been amazed at the fact that they'd simply bought him a new wardrobe at the Air Port. He was careful not to let that amazement show to anyone. He had traveled to South America as a mercenary after all. He'd insisted on keeping his black boots though. No use working in a new pair of boots if you are being chased by someone and his weren't going to fall apart anytime soon.

Grabbing his black boots, he drew on his socks and laced up the boots and practically ran down the stairwell almost running down Mac Devon standing in the doorway.

Devon who'd been wearing a smile glowered when he saw it was Jake coming down the stairs first.

Jake gave him a hard stare, decided he must rub all BSAA agents the wrong way. He shrugged off the look and sauntered past Devon into the kitchen. To do so though he'd had to bump past the shorter man as Devon didn't exactly get out of his way. What the hell is his problem?

He stopped and glanced back. Sherry. He was waiting for Sherry. He suddenly felt even more possessive of Sherry than when they'd been in China. He stared at the young agent for a moment who had his back to him staring up the stairs. Was Sherry in a relationship with him? That was potentially a problem when he....well it was a problem, Jake decided.

He turned and headed towards the front lobby. He noted every detail on the way down, knowing every exit would help if they suddenly had to run for it. There were agents in plain clothes everywhere. He could tell who they were by the way they carried themselves. They need to work on that, he decided. Even paying attention to the details didn't quite banish the young man waiting for Sherry from his mind.

"Where's Sherry?" asked Leon from the table. The dining area was filled with other guests leaving the hotel. Jake suddenly felt exposed again. He'd left his gun upstairs too on Sherry's night stand. Damnit. I'm not usually this careless.

Leon grinned and Jake realized that Claire had probably told him what had happened. The way the Devon guy had glowered at him made him suddenly realize that everyone knew what had happened. He sat down at the table and crossed his arms. Great.

Jake suddenly sat up taller. There was no way Devon and Sherry were together in that case. That kid would have confronted him openly; Jake knew the type. Possessive, protective…didn't matter. Hell, he was that type.

Sherry finally made an appearance and sat down next to him in the only other open seat. They looked everywhere but at each other. She put his gun into his lap without looking at him and pulled her arm back quickly.

He snatched it up with a scowl and slipped it into the waist band of his jeans. "Now that we're all done looking at each other, is the hero here," he shot a dark look at Leon, "going to tell us the plan?"

"We're going to take you both to a safe house." Said Leon. "You'll be on guard duty, carrying gear similar to what Chris and Devon are carrying." He patted a duffel bag on the floor. "This is for you."

Jake raised an eyebrow and said nothing. "So I'm going to be a body guard?" He pulled the bag close and unzipped, his eyebrows shooting up before he closed the bag again.

"You'll be each other's body guard," Leon replied lifting an eyebrow. "It worked well before."

Jake nodded, it had certainly worked well before. He wasn't going to argue the point. He mostly couldn't wait to be alone with Sherry. There was a lot he wanted to ask her about. He'd just have to be patient, and patience wasn't his strong suit. He could work on that.

"How long will we be there?" Sherry asked, not looking at Jake. She glanced over at Devon only to find him scowling. She finally just stared down at the table.

"Don't know," said Leon. "Claire and I were going to scope out some leads."

"We're perfectly capable of scoping out leads." Sherry replied finally glancing at Jake. He snorted but didn't say anything.

"I know that," Leon spread his hands attempting to placate her. "But we're not risking you until we know more. No arguments."

"Fine," Sherry said. It was her turn to glower. The protectiveness was starting to feel like a cage and Sherry had spent enough time in a cage for her own protection.

"You'll be safe." Devon said from the corner smiling at her. He never wanted anything more right now than to have Jake's job. The only difference between him and Jake though was that Jake saw her as an equal, and while he would protect her, he expected her to have his back as well.

Devon didn't see her like that. He believed he needed to keep watch over her just so she would be safe. The idea of Sherry rushing off into danger was the last thing Devon wanted for her.

"I don't want to be safe." Snapped Sherry. "This is my life. I don't want to run and hide, I want to take them down."

Devon was taken back at the sharpness of her voice and did not make a reply.

Jake smiled. That's my super girl, he thought to himself. He'd been wondering when the "Sherry" that had come and rescued him in Edonia was going to make an appearance. Sure she'd been nice to him, but that didn't stop her from telling him off when he needed it. Her tone now said back off. He glanced over at the BSAA agent. Don't think you can handle that little boy, he thought.

Across the table Claire studied them both. It was ironic really, Jake obviously liked Sherry and she liked him. They couldn't even look at each other. Their parents almost destroyed the world. Neither one had grown up to be a scientist like either parent. Each had learned to deal death but nothing on the massive scale of their parents.

And here they were acting like two school kids with a crush. Claire kept her face smoothed over. It was clear that Jake cared about Sherry a lot. It was also ironic, like a full circle coming to a close. At least she didn't think Sherry was capable of destroying the world. But Jake…who knew? Claire was still uneasy around the big man. Wesker was a cold hearted bastard, what kind of woman would have tempted Wesker in the first place? Who had his mother been?


	12. Chapter 12

Jake went outside the front door of the hotel to check out the scenery.

He didn't like it, there were too many vantage points. New York was bigger than any city he’d ever visited and he wasn't sure he was even a fan.  _Too many people._  The atmosphere inside the lounge area was a little too crowded for him. It wasn’t any better outside. Claire had continued to study him like he was going to turn into his father any second. He grimaced. That kind of scrutiny was almost begging for something to happen.

Almost.

He wasn't sure what it would take to convince that woman that he was here for Sherry and nothing else. He had no bad intentions towards anyone. Her certainly wasn't about to wipe out all life as they knew it. Wesker could go to hell, if he wasn't there already.

Devon came out behind him, bumping into his shoulder from behind and knocking Jake off balance as he did so. The stiffened posture told Jake it was intentional, and Jake’s bad mood darkened further.

"What the hell is your problem?" Jake snapped glaring at him. This was the second time Devon had run into him for no good reason. Perhaps it was time to have it out with the BSAA agent. They were supposed to be on the same side after all. Maybe the guy had a hard time telling who the enemy was.

"You are," Devon said, stepping close. The two men faced off. Jake stood a good three inches taller than Devon which did not seem to bother the BSAA agent at all. "You're a dangerous guy Jake, bad for Sherry."

Tension spiraled out from between them as they faced each other on the sidewalk in busy New York City. Oddly enough no one seemed to either notice or want to get involved. Jake turned a cold stare on Devon, his shoulders were knotted with tension and his fists were balled aching to swing into Devon's face. He said nothing in reply. It was true.

Both men were locked into a stare daring the other to make the first move. Jake was determined to let Mr. BSAA big shot strike first. He had a feeling Sherry was going to be pissed if he took the first shot. Claire might use it as an excuse to either shoot him or get rid of him. Jake didn’t actually know what Claire did for a living.

"Sherry's the last person to be in danger from me," his voice dropping into a low dangerous tone. "But you, you're getting close to being the first." He glared at the younger man hoping that he'd take the hint. Jake didn't think he'd have a problem dropping him if he had to but he knew that this wasn't the enemy they were supposed to be fighting.

"What did you say?" Said Devon getting even closer to his face.  _Nope, not taking the hint at all._  Devon was maybe 6 feet tall, Jake had an extra 3 inches on him and stared down at him his eyes narrowed, his face red. Then he jabbed the agent in the chest when his finger.

"You don't want to do this, asshole."

"I think I do," said Devon. If he could have gotten any closer into Jake's personal space, he would have.

"Is there a problem here?" Chris Redfield's voice cut through the tension like a hot knife through butter.

"No, Sir," said Devon stepping back glancing at Chris with an expression that was half rebellion, half guilt. His fists were still clenched.

At the same time Jake said, "Yeah better keep this puppy on a leash. Let him know he's biting off more than he can chew."

"You basta—" Devon came at Jake swinging and Chris jumped in front of him grabbing his arm and pinning it behind his back before he could finish the upper cut.

Jake paused again surprised. This was the second time Chris Redfield had stepped between him and a potential problem. He was going to owe the guy, if he kept that up.

"Enough!" Chris said. He glanced at Jake. "I'll take care of this."

"Maybe you could let him know who the enemy is,” Jake, could not help throwing a parting shot. “He can’t seem to figure it out.”

Jake just stood there and crossed his arms as Sherry, Leon and Claire emerged from the hotel. Chris shoved a red-faced Devon inside in front of him with a quick, "Be right back!" thrown their way.

Leon lifted an eyebrow at Jake who shrugged. "The puppy needs training." Was all he said.


	13. Chapter 13

 

"What the fuck did you think you were doing?" said Chris as he shoved Devon in front of him. Chris was angry, more than angry, he wanted to ring Devon’s neck.  He kept his hands at his sides for a moment, even though they were balled into fists.

"That guy is dangerous." Said Devon, not backing down. "I was just war—"

"I trusted you with this mission." Interrupted Chris. "You going to make me regret it?" He stared at the younger man, hoping as his commanding CO the kid would take the hint. 

"No sir," said Devon cooling down a notch. His shoulders dropped and he put up both hands in what he hoped was a placating gesture. He knew he'd messed up getting in Muller's face. But the guy rubbed him the wrong way. It was Sherry's preference for him that was pissing him off. As far as he knew Muller hadn’t done anything wrong. Yet.

"Get it together," said Chris, "There are greater things at stake here than you and that guy."  _Oh my god, am I really quoting Muller?_ Chris had a brief flashback to the moment when Jake had learned Chris had killed his father and drawn a bead on him. He hadn’t known whether or not the kid would actually pull the trigger. Yes, in the end he’d taken a shot, but purposely aimed away from Chris. Chris always thought Sherry’s presence had helped, but it hadn’t mattered. Chris would have let Jake shoot him if it meant getting him to the surface alive. His blood was the only cure they had for the C-Virus outbreak. Jake had known and understood that too. _“There are more important things at stake here, than you and me.”_ Chris’s respect for him had grown right then and there.

"That guy is an asshole." Said Devon. Chris glared at him. He almost pointed out that that asshole had saved the world from the C-Virus but kept his cool. The kid was proving to be a bit of a hot-head letting his jealousy get the better of him.

"Sorry sir," Devon stared at the floor. "Won't happen again."

"Better not," said Chris. "If it does you're out." He turned away. Their own team was going to take them apart from the inside out. Not Neo-Umbrella or whatever shell company name they were using now.


	14. Chapter 14

The drive was an awkward one with Sherry and Jake sitting side by side in the backseat in a vehicle that didn’t quite accommodate Jake’s long legs. Claire was driving, and Leon riding shot gun and maintaining radio silence but keeping an ear out. Jake honestly preferred the crazy run through China with Sherry to the silence of the four of them in the truck.

Leon kept glancing at them in the rearview mirror his face showing amusement. Claire's showed consternation. Neither Jake and Sherry glanced up front to notice. They had both simply stared out of their respective windows avoiding physical contact as much as possible.

"We need fuel." Claire said pulling off the highway into the next exit. Leon only shrugged and snuck a glance to the back seat again.

Jake had a gun attached to his leg, Leon sighed. He understood the younger man was never going to feel comfortable without a firearm of some sort. Leon got that, but Jake couldn’t walk around the streets anywhere in America with a gun strapped to his thigh. Most people were afraid at the mere sight of a gun. Leon grimaced, you’d have to have the barrel aimed at him and even then, he doubted he’d flinch.

“You might want to tuck that in a back holster.” Jake’s eyes shifted forward. He nodded. He never really felt comfortable without a handgun tucked into his ammo belt, but he was noticing in America a lot of people went without. His jacket hung low over his waist hiding a holster from view. But he preferred the one on his thigh. Sighing he shifted the hand gun to his back before he pulled himself from the truck.

Sherry was armed with a hand gun tucked onto her back. You couldn't see it under her dark brown coat. She hid a smile as she got out of the truck. 

They pulled off the road and into a shell gas station. It was pretty much empty except for a bored employee behind the counter. The air was cold and crisp.

Jake sniffed the air, the faint feel of humidity was gently wafting in, which could mean snow or rain. He had no idea for this region. His breath came out in white puffs in front of him so he was guessing snow.

"Don't wander off," Jake said quietly to Sherry as she stretched. She looked around, other than the highway there was nothing but forest and trees here. Her brown coat lined with fur came down to her thighs and she wore the hood on her head over a small black hat like his own.

"Yeah I suppose I'll get far." She smiled at him, turned away and walked towards a picnic table that was off to the side of the parking lot. He sighed, it was the first time she had glanced his way since they'd left the hotel. They really did need to sit and talk a few things out. He hadn't been able to manage any time alone yet. He watched his own breath come in and out for a second. Glad for his own black coat and black hat he studied his surroundings.

Leon pumped gas into the truck and Claire walked inside the store. That left Jake looking after Sherry for a moment. This body guard business so far had not been as exciting his previous job.  _Better off as a mercenary,_  he thought.  _Even one who isn't paid so much._

On the next pump over, Chris was pumping gas into their car while Devon was sitting inside the vehicle sulking somewhat but keeping an eye out. Chris had thought it best if they followed in a nondescript car and not even act as if they belonged together as a team. Normally it wasn't their job to escort DSO agents around but in this case; it had been encouraged.

A stick cracked in the woods behind the gas station. Jake heard it and his face snapped towards the sound as he searched the trees for a sign of movement. It could have been something or it could have been nothing. The trees were unnaturally quiet. He knew there wouldn't be much insect noise because it was cold but even the birds were silent.

Crack. The sound carried over to Jake’s senses as if someone had shot a gun. His unease grew as he picked up on the stillness and the simple “out of place” feeling he was getting.

Jake noticed some movement in the trees and then he realized Sherry was sitting on a picnic table there. Her back was towards the woods. He drew his gun and pointed it in Sherry's direction.

"Sherry," he called in a low voice moving towards her. She glanced up and saw him and turned following his line of sight behind her. She looked confused but followed his lead and reached for her own gun under her shirt and backed away from the trees slowly scanning to see what had captured Jake's attention.

From inside the car Devon, still fuming, looked up and saw Jake draw his weapon followed his line of sight, but only saw Sherry.

"Shit," Devon said getting out of the car and drawing his own weapon. Feeling vindicated he pointed his own gun at Jake's back.

As Jake began running towards Sherry yelling at her, Devon pulled the trigger. The shot hit Jake in the shoulder and Jake staggered and fell just as a group of J'Avo burst from the trees. “Jake!” Sherry reached him and turned and started firing her own gun at nearest J'Avo, bringing them down one at a time with quick shots to the head if she could hit it.

Back on top of the hill Chris, Leon, and Claire were all firing their weapons while Devon was frozen horrified at what had just happened. "Move!" said Chris pointing at him, "Keep an eye behind us! There’s someone back there!"

He had no idea that Devon had taken that shot. He thought there was another shooter still behind them.

"Oh fuck," said Devon, firing his own gun at the J'Avo.  _What had he just done?_

The "bored" employee was no longer bored but terrified, hiding behind the counter watching the scene unfold through the windows. The J'Avo kept coming, the kid had never seen anything like it in his entire life.

The J'Avo with their deformed faces, some of them mutating as they were hit, extended arms clawing ahead of them converged around Jake and Sherry. Chris, Leon, and Claire simply mowed them down as they tried to get closer.

"You have to kill them with a head shot!" Leon called, "otherwise they just keep mutating into something else!"

True enough some of the J'Avo's arms exploded into much longer limbs as the virus adjusted for the shots just fired into them. Any hit directly in the head stayed down. Others were hardly recognizable as human. One had four legs resembling a morbid centaur crossed with a spider. It's clawed arms waving wildly around. Claire paused and took a shot at its head watching in horror as the whole creature came crashing down close to her. God, she hated Wesker right now. She kept aiming as she knew the others were doing so.

Suddenly Jake was in her sights. She could take him out now, end this whole mess before Sherry got herself seriously hurt. He had gotten to one knee and was holding one arm close to his side and firing with the other. Blood was soaking the back of his jacket.

The similarities between him and his father kept swimming before her eyes as she compared the two physically. Until Jake himself had confirmed the similarity she would never have compared them. Wesker having any children at all was inconceivable. Would they not be just as awful as he was? But since he had mentioned it, the physical similarities were all she saw in him. How else were they similar?

In the seconds she took to sort through these thoughts Sherry was in her sights as well. Sherry had one arm hooked under Jake's good arm she pulled him to his feet and then pushed against him so he was standing with his back to her, and her to him. Blood was running down Jake's back and onto Sherry's coat, staining even the dark brown color. Claire could tell they had taken this position before, it was almost a natural reflex as to how quickly Sherry had pulled him up and turned around firing. She was honestly surprised Jake made it on his feet, as his face looked pale, even as he kept shooting determinedly, protecting Sherry's back as she protected his.

Claire pulled away from her dark thoughts about Jake and starting mowing down J'Avo with a vengeance. She could not shoot Wesker now, he was dead. His monstrosities would have to do for the time being. Wesker's bastard would have to wait.

From inside the crowd, Leon could hear Jake cursing and firing his own weapon. He needed to get to both but the horde of J'Avo was making it impossible.  _How had they gotten so many J'Avo here?_

"Shit," said Leon sprinting as fast as he could at them. They needed to get them both out of there and Jake needed a doctor.

"How did they know?" Claire shouted behind him.

"Just move!" said Leon. It meant they had a leak somewhere in the BSAA, he'd kind of expected it but not this soon.

Leon burst through the J'Avo and grabbed Sherry's arm.

"Take her!" Jake said through gritted teeth. He staggered but didn't go down again. His face was white and his body was tensed up against the pain in his shoulder.

"I'm not going," said Sherry. They'd been in worse scrapes than this and she couldn't believe he was ordering her to leave.

"Go, before I knock you the hell out myself," he yelled at her. Feeling suddenly desperate, he yelled out. "You can't be taken Sherry, just go!"

Leon jerked her back still firing, the J'Avo converged on Jake again but did not return for Sherry.  _Shit, Sherry's not the only target this time._ It made sense that they would be after both of them Leon realized.  _Wesker was dead and still making a play from the grave._

"Go damnit!" Jake screamed at Leon, not seeing Leon's horrified expression. Leon was frozen in place and had released Sherry's arm watching as the horde of J'avo pulled Jake down.

Jake was dragged towards the trees, yelling and cursing the whole way. He didn't care how injured he was; he was taking as many with him as he could. His strength was fading though and he dropped his gun and bumped helplessly along.

When he got to the tree line a man stepped out. The J'avo dropped Jake at his feet.

"Who is that?" Asked Leon reloading his gun and keeping Sherry behind him. The man pulled out a syringe and looking up at Sherry and smiled.

And then jabbed the syringe into Jake's neck.

Jake stiffened and any fight that he had left went out of him.

The J'Avo picked up Jake and dragged him off at a fast pace, disappearing into the trees, not caring about the scrapes he incurred along the way. The rest stayed around and waited for direction from the man among them.

The blonde man turned and looked pointedly at Sherry and waved, a big smile on his face.  _See you soon_ , he mouthed.

Chris was frozen in shock. "Albert Wesker?" He said, "Did you see that?" He drew his gun. It was like Wesker had come back to life, he looked younger but it had to be him.

Behind him Claire too was frozen. And riddled with guilt.

Sherry couldn't move, they just looked at each other. Wesker smiling, and Sherry in horror. Then as suddenly as he was there he turned and walked back into the trees. There were a few J'Avo behind him, but unlike the others these still looked human and were carrying AK 47's. They waited for him to vanish into the trees and then turned and went after him.

Moments later a helicopter roared up into the skies from the trees.

Claire, Leon, Chris and Sherry found themselves staring around in shock in the middle of a bunch of bloody deformed bodies.

Jake was gone.

 


	15. Chapter 15

Devon had never seen Wesker in person couldn’t understand the shock that the other four were experiencing. Nor could he understand the dread that had dropped over the group like a cloud. He looked around. It was a bit of luck for him that Jake had been taken. Explaining the bullet away wasn't going to be easy.

He hoped that Jake was dead, but he had the feeling that the man they just encountered wanted him alive for some reason.

"Hey…he's not coming back is he?" It was the gas attendant walking shakily out of the store.

"No," Said Leon coming out of his trance and grabbing his phone to make a few phone calls. "But you might want to stay inside." He gestured to the bodies, some were still twitching. The rest of them, Devon, Chris, Claire, and Sherry were moving through putting a bullet into the heads of any that were still moving. Normally a mutation was almost instant but better safe than sorry. There was also the problem of some of the J’avo turning into Chrysalids and forming some of the ugliest butterfly human crosses ever to roam the earth.  These would be burned to prevent that from happening.

The young man's eyes widened. By now most people had heard about the outbreaks. It was hardly news that could be kept a secret. He rushed back in and pulled out his phone. Leon realized that facebook or twitter was going to get another rash of zombie sighting photos.

"He's not going to get sick, is he?" Claire said glancing worriedly at the store employee and then over at Sherry. Sherry was standing off to the side gazing off into the distance. It wasn’t completely sightless, which was not what worried Claire. Sherry looked like she’d seen a ghost. IF it was Albert Wesker returned the odds were highly likely Sherry would be returned to lock up. For her own safety, of course.  Working for the DSO wouldn’t be enough. She was more than an agent to the US government. She was a commodity, one that would be retracted if they thought it would be taken. Something that Leon had been hoping to avoid for her by bringing Jake in.

"Probably not," said Leon. "But we've got bigger problems than him right now."

“Yeah,” Chris responded. “I put a rocket into Wesker, inside a fucking volcano. How the hell did he survive?”


	16. Chapter 16

His nose itched.

It was the first indication he had that he was still breathing. Jake tried moving his arm to scratch it only his arm refused to cooperate. His eyes flew open only to be assaulted by a bright light just over his head. He groaned and tried to bring both hands up to his face but they were immobile.

“Shit…” His adrenaline rose as he panicked for a second, he forced his eyes open and stared down his chest towards his feet. He felt the straps keeping his legs in place as he struggled.

He was strapped to a table. Again.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Jake drew in a deep breath trying to think. He was alone as far as he could tell. By alone, he had no back up, Sherry was not here. At least he hoped she wasn’t.

"How do you feel?" A man's voice said from his right.

Jake froze. He didn't recognize the voice at all. Nor could he see the speaker. He turned his head towards the right attempting to see the speaker but whoever he was remained just out of sight.

"Alive." Jake muttered dropping his head back again, then he amended, "like killing something." His shirt was off and the room was cold. "Fucking freezing," he added for good measure. He rotated his head around trying to get a glimpse of the speaker but whoever they were stayed just out of his vision.

"Now, now," the man walked closer and Jake could finally see him. He was a tall man, possibly as tall as Jake, with blonde hair and blue eyes. "This was your shirt from earlier." He turned it around and held it over Jake's chest so Jake could see it. There was a hole in the back and dried blood splattered down the side of it. Jake shuddered.

"One of your assholes?" Jake snapped. He gritted his teeth. Being strapped down was too much like China, where they’d moved him from the lab, strapped him to a table at gun point and then returned him to his cell also at gun point.

The man appeared amused. "Not one of mine, one of yours, I'm afraid."

It took a second to sink in. That BSAA agent…

"That bastard shot me!" Jake’s rage overtook his panic at the current situation.  It was Redfield’s new partner, Devon who had hit him from behind. He'd get even with Redfield's puppy later. If he got out of this. It made a crazy kind of sense that that BSAA agent had shot him in the back. Jake put his head back on the table. There was no point in struggling, he was strapped tight.

"Yes, well he saved me the trouble of injuring you myself." The blonde man paused, there was something familiar about his face that Jake was having trouble placing. A thought kept trying to place a name to the face but try as he might Jake couldn’t figure out who he was.

"Who are you?" Jake asked. "I don't think we've met."

"Well, we have the same father," the man sighed, "but that's about all we have in common."

"You're my brother?" The sudden familiarity made sense, it was his features that were so similar to Jake’s own. Same nose, chin, eyes, similar height. Where Jake’s hair was red, his hair was blonde. The revelation stunned Jake and for once he couldn’t think of anything else to say

"Half-brother. I'm Albert, Jr." he added. "Father knew about me…trained me. And you…well you are just his by-blow I suppose. He did spread his genes around, on purpose in his early years. I understand he didn't exactly want for partners. But Father believed his own genes were what would move humanity forward. Initially he debated on breeding the smartest people. Who was your mother?"

Jake could feel his blood going to a boil at hearing his mother described this way. His face turned a bright red and he clenched his fists. Albert, Jr. seemed not to notice. “None of your fucking business.”

"But still I see the genes did take in you." Albert continued as if Jake had not spoken. “You are immune to the released C-Virus. Even the enhanced C-Virus won’t have any effect on you.”

 _This bastard loves to hear himself talk_. Jake simmered as he struggled to control his temper.

"I see crazy does run in the family," Jake could not understand how this guy could be his brother after Neo Umbrella had chased him all over Edonia to obtain his blood. Wouldn’t this guy’s blood have worked as well?

"Yeah well, I prefer to call it greatness," said Albert Wesker, Jr. smiling. "Our experiment worked you see. You have the antibodies…and you were healed. Once I injected you that is. Took about 12 hours the first time around…your lung was pierced. You shouldn’t even be here now. But you healed up nicely. Watch this!"

Jake wasn’t prepared for what happened next.

Albert took a knife in his right hand and drove it deep into Jake's arm, Jake could feel it stick into the bone. It wasn’t the worst pain he’d ever felt, the wound that had given him his facial scar had been much worse.  Jake growled at the pain but watched as his arm knit itself back together after the knife was pulled out. It hurt.

  _Just like Sherry._  

"What the fuck did you do to  _me?"_ He said, amazed. "How?" _Oh god, Sherry._ "You did this to Sherry. Over and over again?"

"Oh, Sherry?" Albert smiled. "That girl is lovely. Unfortunately for her, I am going to need more samples from her. You understand the G-Virus is a whole different animal. I had a working sample that I needed a test subject for. I was going to just collect her but then you showed up, and again saved me the trouble of finding you. And you were perfect, had the antibodies to be immune to the C-virus…perfect test subject."

"Leave her alone," said Jake.

"I can't do that I'm afraid,” Albert had the audacity to look almost sad. "You see, she's now the most wanted person in the world. People in high places watched a video of you healing, and when I mixed your samples and created the Immortality virus, it actually worked on you. I've already injected myself." He grinned. "Now I need to tweak it to work on just about anybody."

"Oh, of course." Said Jake. "Crazy Dad, crazy half-brother, am I the only fucking sane one here?" He stared up at the ceiling, the soft light glow from the lab lights providing no answers to his question.

"You're a mercenary," said Albert off to his right. He sniffed, "hardly a career choice for a sane person don't you think?" Jake let that sink in for a moment. It was true, he did get a thrill fighting B.O.W.'s. He was good at it. But he didn’t create the B.O.W.s. He just cleaned up the mess.

"Where have you been hiding this whole time?" Jake changed the subject. "I mean they chased me all over the world looking for my blood. Why didn't they just take yours?"

Wesker didn't answer for a moment. But when he did, he surprised Jake. "I, myself, have been in hiding for a while. At least hiding my identity. Until Carla Radames was killed anyway." He smiled. "It could very well have been me on the run, but my Father always meant to rule and I was his backup plan."

"Good for you." Jake said rolling his eyes. He wasn't sure whether Wesker Jr. was bragging or getting into his life story. Whatever the case, he didn't really want to hear about it. He’d never known Wesker was his father until last year. He wasn’t sure what to think of the guy, let alone hate him for his own Daddy issues. Not having Wesker in his life was looking better and better.

"Umbrella Corp is such a big operation, “Albert continued with a bit of pride in his voice. "We're all over the world, have our hand in all the banks. With this, you are going to put me in charge. This was Father's plan you know, remaking the world."

Jake was appalled. His first thought was for Sherry. Where did she fit in all of this?

Albert paused looking at the security monitors that Jake couldn't see. "I see the Calvary is here. I wondered how long it would take them to get here."

He moved away from Jake. "I suppose we'll have a nice chat next time we see each other."

"Like hell." Jake responded. “You’re leaving me here? Why?”

"I have what I need for the moment. I'm sure we'll see you again, brother."

"Fuck you!" snarled Jake.

"Oh, and let Sherry know I'll be seeing her soon. You both are welcome to visit my labs in China…. if you can find your way into them again."

"Why didn't you just take her now?" Jake asked.

Albert paused. "Now what fun would that be? You seem to underestimate the power I’m wielding here. Besides, I'm announcing my presence to the world, not just the BSAA. Sherry will get tired of running. She'll either come to me herself or make a mistake."

Jake heard a door open and close and then silence. He tugged at his restraints.  _Hurry up, Sherry!_

BSAA agents ran in, Chris and Devon among them. But Albert Wesker Jr. was gone.

Once the agents had cleared the room Sherry was suddenly in his line of sight. "Jake!" He looked up into her eyes as she stared down at him. They were red rimmed and he could tell she'd been crying recently. "Are you, all right?"

"Let me get the controls," Chris’s voice came from behind Sherry.

"Doesn't look like it was a happy family reunion," Claire muttered peering around the lab. Jake almost got a  _fuck you_  out but restrained himself. No use in yelling at Sherry's friend here, not when Sherry was hovering over him like a mother hen. He allowed himself a tiny bit of pleasure in it, but it was all he could allow. He and Sherry were going to have to talk. Sooner, rather than later.

Chris hit the controls to let Jake up off the table. Jake drew his legs up and swung them over the side of the table massaging his wrists. He stared at the arm that had less than ten minutes ago been stabbed down to the bone. Then he spotted Redfield’s partner lurking in the back of the room.

He pushed past Sherry and flew at Devon. "You shot me, you bastard!" He got in one good punch and heard a satisfying crunch as Devon's nose broke, the BSAA agent collapsed to the floor. Then Leon was in front of him.

"Wait!" Leon yelled putting his arms up in front of Jake. "Are you, all right? What happened?"

"No, I'm not fucking all right," snapped Jake. "He shot me in the back!" His fists clenched as again the BSAA agents were not sure who they should be pointing their guns at.

"He shot you?" Chris looked confused. Then he nodded grimly. That shot from the top of the hill had come from Devon's gun. Not from a stray J’Avo. He stared at the collapsed young man on the floor and sighed, knowing what he’d have to do next.

Jake turned back to Sherry, his anger spent.

Sherry was looking at his shoulder. Her worst fear was written on her face at his healed skin. _She knew_ , he realized if no one else had realized it yet, she knew they'd used the new virus on him to make him heal.

"We need to talk," he said to Leon. "Someplace private. And Sherry doesn't leave my side."

"Fine," said Leon. "But you need a doctor…" He slowed down and looked at Jake's shoulder for the first time, completely healed. "What exactly happened here?"

"Not here," Jake hissed, looking around the room. "Redfield," he said turning to Chris, who was staring down at Devon getting medical attention. "That puppy is gone."

Chris nodded. "Already done."

Jake grabbed his shirt and put it on. The bloody hole in the back showed clearly through. Claire gasped but Sherry said nothing.

"They weren't after me, were they," she whispered, staring at him. "And you were right, they used me to get to you."

He shrugged and shook his head, it didn't matter. He would have used any excuse to see her again. If she had needed a back rub he would have flown half way around the world for it.

"They would have found me eventually." Jake shrugged, “He already knew where I was. It would have happened sooner or later.” He took her by the elbow, "We'll talk, but not here, ok?"

"Right," said Sherry. She was shaken but marched herself to the truck and Jake jumped in next to her. His gear was still in the back seat. He began strapping himself in.

"Where are we going?" said Sherry.

"Oh, we're still going to the safe house," Jake wanted that alone time more than anything. Leon and Claire climbed into the front.

"Chris is taking Devon out of commission for now," Leon looked at Jake through the mirror. "Sorry Jake."

"No problem," said Jake, "We don't need either of them. Let's just get to the safe house." He didn’t want to think about Redfield right now. Mostly because he was leaning more towards being glad Redfield had pulled the trigger.

Leon smiled, "That idea worked," GPS trackers on both of them had led them to Jake.

"Damn right it worked," said Jake. "But I think he let me get away. It was a test, he totally wanted to brag."

“Who?” Claire asked as she put the truck in drive.

“Wesker Jr.”

"What?" Leon was surprised. "That wasn’t Wesker himself?"

Jake told them in detail what had happened. When he was finished Sherry was the first to respond. "I want a duffel bag like Jake's," she demanded.

Jake smiled. "Give her one, she's not helpless."

"This doesn't get out." Leon said. "Wesker’s son carrying on his work would cause a panic around the world." He glanced at Jake. “No offense.”

“None taken.” Jake muttered staring down at his lap.

Sherry stared at Jake for a moment and then reached over and took his hand. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t need to.  He knew she understood the turmoil that was going on inside of him. She had her own mad scientist for a parent. William Birkin wasn’t as well known as Wesker around the world, but he’d been part of Wesker’s circle at one time.

"It's already out," Jake said after a moment of silent. "Apparently you've got people in high places quite willing to pay for that pint. But I'm not giving them a cent of Super girl." The idea of the experiments Sherry had gone through made him angry all over again.

"Who do we need?" Said Leon.

Claire grinned at him. "Ada." Claire knew about Leon’s mysterious “friend.”

Leon had the grace to look horrified as Claire grinned at him.

Claire shrugged. "Call her, you'll know she will know something. She always does."

The conversation died down again as Claire drove. Sherry didn’t release Jake’s hand the entire trip. Jake was still dressed in the bloody shirt, and they were still going to be on the run. He couldn’t help but think it was only a matter of time before Wesker caught up with them. It might be time to go off the grid, but would that help? He squeezed her hand even as he was lost in thought. How could he protect her from what he knew was coming?

 


	17. Chapter 17

Contacting Ada Wong was the easy part. Actually talking to her though... Leon was never sure what side she was on, or really her whole part in anything. On the one hand, she'd helped him on numerous occasions, on the other she always managed to get what she was after while doing it. She'd saved his life in China though, so he thought maybe a word with her to see what she knew wouldn't hurt. Claire was right, they did need something…

"Why Leon," she said through the phone when he called. "I was expecting your call a lot sooner than this. Are you losing your touch?"

"I hope not," Leon smiled into the receiver. “Makes for a bad rep if I am.”

"Your young friends are in trouble again, I've noticed." Her voice carried the hint of disapproval, but whether it was for how Leon was handling the situation or the fact that they were in the situation again

"What do you know?" Leon asked. 

Ada sighed into the phone. "I know Sherry's virus is unique to her for whatever reason. They are having a hard time replicating it. Probably due to the circumstances in which she acquired it. The young Wesker boy may yet pull it off, because he's got quite a few buyers already funding his projects. Mixing it with Jake's antibodies was a stroke of genius, but it won't work with just anyone else yet. Only Jake, and now this new Wesker kid. Immunity to the C-Virus is key and Wesker was the only one with that special blood type. I don't know why that is. It might be just a chance in millions that it works for the both of them. But now that it works on himself, he's got to get it to work on just anybody, for that he needs—"

"Jake and Sherry." Leon's voice was hard. "Did you know he was in China…. with Sherry?"

"Believe me," said Ada sadly. "I had no idea he even existed until recently. You may want to try China again. Albert Wesker kept had many secrets. I only found a few of the many."

"Ada," Leon said, there was a longing in his voice. "Thank you."

She broke the connection.


	18. Chapter 18

"So, what's the call?" Jake asked when Leon rejoined them later.  Leon was silent a moment and then explained in detail what Ada had told him.

"So, we need to disappear." It wasn’t a question. Jake was fully prepared to go off the grid if he had to. He only hoped Sherry was ready for something of that nature. It was the kind of life he could get used to if he had to.

"We could die." Sherry whispered, not looking at him. There was a moment of silence as the rest of them stared at her. She had been mostly pensive since they’d gotten Jake back. He’d caught her staring at his shoulder more than once when she thought he wasn’t looking. She hadn’t asked him about it yet. Honestly, he wasn’t ready to talk about it just yet.

"No..." Jake stared at her for a moment thinking she’d gone off the deep end. He wouldn’t have blamed her otherwise.

“Sherry.” Claire started.

"I did not mean literally," snapped Sherry.

There was an uncomfortable silence. "Can you die?" Leon asked finally. "I mean, there's a reason they're calling it the "Immortality Virus."

Sherry sat there dumbfounded, she sneaked a glance at Jake. He was going to have the same problem as her. He refused to discuss it. "I don't know…I've never thought about it…I mean I got older…"

Jake looked at her. She was a tiny petite blonde, who at 27 could pass for a teenager. "I don't know," he shook his head. "You getting older…that's iffy."

"There is going to be a large amount of money at Wesker's disposal so he can find you," Leon interrupted. He ran his fingers through his hair. "Higher ups are interested… You'll have to disappear."

Claire responded. "We can forge new ID's."

"No," said Jake. "Out of the system, completely. It's the only way something like this will work. They can always match a face, and DNA doesn't lie, even if you change everything else."

Sherry shot him a look. "You'll need some sort of ID to get out of the country." Claire pointed out.

Jake sat back for a moment. Sneaking out would be difficult in a day in age where every move you made was logged.

"It's late," Claire stood. "Let's get some sleep. We'll figure it in the morning."

This time no one made a comment when Jake packed up his belongings and dumped them in Sherry's room. He’d given both Leon and Claire a defiant look but neither argued. Both were relieved that there was a remedy for Sherry’s nightmares, even if it was a bit controversial. Claire moved to the other room and Leon was too preoccupied to do more than lift an eyebrow as she dropped her back

"Coffee?" He said to Claire absently checking his watch.

"Love to." She responded.


	19. Chapter 19

Sherry changed into her pajamas in the bathroom and climbed into bed. Jake had taken his shirt off but was busy stuffing his things into a bag. "Do you plan on packing all night?" She asked him. She couldn’t help but stare at him as he worked. She jerked her eyes away before he could notice.

"I say we ditch this place. Tonight." Jake hadn’t turned around yet, but snatched a black shirt up and slipped it on. Turning around he glanced at her realizing she was in her pjs.

"What?"

"If we need to disappear then wouldn't it be best if Leon and Claire didn't know where we were? Aren't they safer that way?"

Sherry thought about it. "Yes, but I'm at least going to leave them a note."

He looked up at her then. "So, write a note."

Sherry despite being exhausted began to pack her clothes and went into the bathroom to change again. She felt an odd sense of excitement building within her. She would be lying if she thought she wasn't just a tiny bit excited to be running away with Jake Muller in the middle of the night.

"Hurry up Sherry," Jake called from the room. Patience was never going to be his strong suit.

Walking out was easy, the hotel lobby was empty except for two people: Leon and Claire.

"Shit!" said Jake when he spotted them. Leon read him like a book.   
"Figured you try something like this," said Leon. He held up his hands gesturing at Claire, "I owed her a coffee date."

“So, you’re on a date?” Sherry gave Claire a look. Claire reddened and started to protest while Leon shrugged.

Sherry cut Claire off with a hug, her bag still attached to her back.

"We'll get them," Claire whispered as she hugged Sherry back.

"I brought you this." Said Leon holding up a duffel bag, identical to the one they'd given Jake. "Your own duffel bag, like his," he nodded at Jake who broke into a smile. He was fully armed, the way he preferred to be. But he also preferred his back up to be the same way.

Sherry threw her arms around Leon in a fierce hug. “Thank you.” It suddenly felt like Raccoon City all over again. After these two had gotten her out, giving her hugs before passing her into the safe hands of the US Government. Except now they were passing her into a path of her own choosing which oddly enough placed her in Jake’s hands. And he in hers.

Jake stood there irresolute, not sure if he should be hugging or shaking hands or what. He felt like the outsider here. Sure it was his biological father that had helped to start all of this, just as it had been Sherry’s but he’d been starting his career as a mercenary at this point.

Leon came and shook his hand. Claire stayed back still aloof. "Take care of Sherry."

"I will," he said giving her a knowing look. She didn't like him but they both cared about Sherry. It would have to do for now.

"Tell Chris, we're sorry we missed him." Said Sherry.

"I'm not sorry." Said Jake crossing his arms.

"Chris has been dealing with 1st Sargent Devon," said Leon evenly. "Devon hasn't been the same, he knows too much but he let his personal issues get in the way. He's been talking too much. I think he's lost it."

"Will he be ok?" She asked, a little concerned. She liked the 1st Sargent, although was clueless about his interest in her.

Leon gave her a strange look and only shrugged.  _Women,_  he thought to himself. He wasn't going to say that out loud in front of Sherry. Sherry who oddly enough did not enjoy hurting people at all would have been horrified if she knew what his interest in her had caused.

"We got to go then," Jake said not really caring about 1st Sargent Devon at all. He’d dismissed the guy as soon as he’d socked him back at the lab.

"There's company outside waiting," said Leon. He patted his firearm. "Figured we'd give you a proper sendoff."

"J'Avo?" asked Sherry.

"More or less." Leon smirked. "They aren't publicly going to attack you just yet. Whoever wants the virus this time must be a public face."

"I hate to say it, but steal a car, a few times just to get away," Claire added.

"Can we get back to Europe?" Jake asked suddenly. "I mean America is great and all…new clothes notwithstanding…but I know the turf there."

"Private jet?" Leon nodded. "I can arrange that…"

"Crash landing?" Sherry piped up.

Jake grinned. "Still trying to die? I like the way you think Super Girl."

Leon flipped his phone open. "Hunnigan…I'm putting Muller and Birkin on assignment in Edonia again. Yes, I know what time it is. Arrange the Lear, we have to go back to ground zero. New information has come to light, I’ll fill you in shortly."

"Edonia isn't ground zero." Jake glanced at Leon, anger sharpening his features. Leon almost took a step back. It was easy to see why he made Claire so nervous. His features did bear a striking resemblance to his old man.

Leon smiled this time. "It is as far as you're concerned.” He clapped Jake on the back. “Don't worry you won't make it there anyway."


	20. Chapter 20

The ride to the airport was uneventful…if you did not count being trailed by two cars and several motorcycles that kept appearing and disappearing into the side streets.

"They're not very good at hiding," Jake observed from Claire's truck.

"I don't think they're hiding," Leon’s voice filtered to Jake from the front. Claire sat next to him in the front and was loading each of their firearms. Jake admired their calm under pressure. He knew they were used to it. Even Sherry was calmly checking her newly issued weapons. Jake had checked his repeatedly already. Now he was just waiting to spring. It was the worst part, the wait.

He hated the tense moment before the storm hit. Where everything depended on what the other guy did. Even if you had the element of surprise you could still fuck it up by giving your position away to early. So, he waited, tense, for the right moment.

The cars simply trailed them, not pulling up close. Jake badly wanted to take the fight to Wesker. His half-brother? He certainly did not want to claim any relation to the guy who'd hurt Sherry so badly she was having nightmares.  _Fuck that, fuck him,_  he thought.

Suddenly one of the cars pulled forward in a maneuver that took Leon by surprise. A motorcycle pulled in front of their truck distracting Leon for a moment as it hit the brakes, Leon simply rammed it, sending the motorcycle flying. Jake in the back seat grinned.  _God, he loved this guy sometimes_.

But then the lead car hit them from the side which sent the truck spinning on the highway.

"Shit." That was all Jake had to hear from Leon to know they were in trouble. The truck flipped over and landed back on its wheels.

"Sorry Claire," Leon said quickly attempting to reverse back onto the road.

"Just don't make a habit out of it," she replied sticking her gun out of the now broken window and firing behind them. The truck was limping along and Jake realized a tire was either flat or out of place. He and Sherry were both banged up, but both of them would heal, they needed to get away from Leon and Claire as soon as possible. 

"We close to the airport yet?" He said.

"Five minutes," said Leon. "Ready?" The other car had disappeared after they spun, they could hear the motorcycles who had dropped back as they neared the air port. It was the gap they needed

"Yes," said Sherry from the back.

They'd planned this out earlier, knowing they were going to be followed.

Jake and Sherry each unbuckled their belts, there was a vehicle hidden out here for them to use. One that wasn't going to be reported stolen when it disappeared. Timing this just right was crucial though because if they were seen leaping from the truck then all their plans were pretty much for naught. Leon's original plane was to drop them off but company meant that was no longer likely.

_ Or the plans are already fucked _ , Jake thought as he readied himself to jump, checking to make sure Sherry was right behind him. Leon swerved near the fence and Jake leapt from the truck hoping Sherry made the jump. He heard the thud as she hit the ground and rolled into the ditch next to him. It was dark here and they both crouched low listening as Leon drove the truck on down the road. They didn't move until the sounds of the cars died away.

"I hope they'll be all right." Whispered Sherry as a breeze began to stir up.

"Just stay down a minute longer." Jake whispered ears straining. It wouldn't do any good if there were stragglers or if someone had thought to come back.

"We should go now," Sherry said noting the absolute silence. Jake had one hand pressed down on the small of her back. It was a reflex she knew but she didn't like the way it was keeping her flat, she wanted to take off running already. "If we're caught here all this will be for nothing, we don't need anyone reporting they saw hitchhikers."

"Ok, Leon's good, remember?" He whispered back. "We want to be away from here before that plane goes up in smoke."

Leon's plan had been to blow the plane as it took off, so completely that nothing would survive inside of it. It required losing their tails first, but he didn't believe Leon had thought there would be quite so many. He’d pulled a lot of strings to rig the plane. Too many for Jake to believe that they could get away clean but they just needed a head start.

He waited another moment waiting for the all clear. The airport was public space and if Leon made it into the gates he doubted there would be a pursuit. Unless they were desperate which was equally as likely.

He reached for Sherry's hand and pulled her to her feet as he rose from the ground in the dark. "Ready, Super girl?"


	21. Chapter 21

Mac Devon walked out of the bar alone. He was wasted, teetering as he walked, a half empty bottle clutched in hand. He'd gone past the point of slurring his words. The bartender had finally refused to give him another drink, offering to call a cab instead. Devon had given the guy the finger and stumbled out of the bar. He threw the bottle down the sidewalk, satisfied as the bottle shattered. He then tried to take another drink only to realize his hand was now empty.

_Damn it!_

_Damn him._

His hatred for Jake Muller had only blossomed since his removal from the mission. He'd been removed from the BSAA, by Chris Redfield himself. The Captain had visited him in the medical tent and told him of the dismissal. An investigation had followed but with no explanation as to how Muller had been hit in the back and subsequently healed the charges had been dismissed for lack of evidence.  He'd been stripped of his rank and summarily discharged because of his behavior. 

He'd argued that Jake Muller was dangerous at his court martial until his Captain had stepped in and said that a discharge would be necessary as Devon was discussing classified material. The debriefing had been humiliating. Devon knew he'd messed up. It was probably the worst screw up he'd ever committed. 

Devon shrugged off his sense of guilt. _That bastard had it coming to him_. It had taken a few months for Sherry to warm up to him, he knew she'd been through hell on her previous mission. He might have even had a chance to take her to a movie till that prick had shown up. 

He staggered down the sidewalk, knowing he shouldn't be driving but still attempting to shove the key into the door to unlock it, all the while ignoring the automatic unlock button on his key chain. 

A long black car pulled up behind him. "May I offer you a ride?" The man in the back seat said. "I'm afraid you don't look like you are in any condition to drive."

"What's it to you?" Devon slurred slowly turning around. The man in the car sat just in the shadow and Devon had to lean down to even get a glimpse of the man's lower torso. A black suit by the look of it. 

"Ah, Mac Devon," the man said consulting a paper in his hand. "Drowning your sorrows I see. What if I told you, I could give you the power to get Miss Birkin and get rid of Mr. Muller?"

"Who are you?" Devon felt an adrenaline spike that sobered him up quickly.

"A friend…"

"I'm listening," said Devon, feeling his buzz starting to lift and regretting not having another drink in hand. There would be a pounding headache later, he knew.

"Why don't you get in and take a drive with me?" The man opened the door.

Devon hesitated, but his hatred for Jake Muller outweighed any suspicion he was feeling about who he might be talking to. He climbed into the car.

"Like I said," the blonde man said, "we have much to discuss." Saying that, he jabbed Devon in the thigh with a large syringe knocking Devon unconscious. "And I do appreciate irony," the younger Wesker whispered as the car rolled away.


	22. Chapter 22

Jake had a death grip on Sherry's hand as he pulled her behind him slowly through the woods. It was pitch black and the trees were packed tightly enough that Jake kept running into one every few feet. _Why couldn't that damn shot have given me something useful like fucking night vision?_ He thought for the third time since they'd run for cover into the trees. He heard the Lear take off…

They both turned at the same time and the Lear appeared above the tree tops arcing towards the heavens.

"What the?" Jake started, when suddenly it exploded into a ball of fire. The ground shook and even from this distance they were shaken off their feet. He thought it was supposed to explode on the ground.

"When he makes it go explosion, he really nails it," Jake muttered rolling onto his hands and pushing himself up. He could barely make Sherry's outline out in the darkness.

"Well that's it." Sherry said from in front of him.…"We're dead."  He heard her sudden intake of breath. "We can't go back?"

"Not yet," Jake turned from looking at the sky. The debris from the falling air craft was soon out of sight.

"Hey they made it," Jake put out a hand until he felt Sherry's arm, he felt towards the bottom of it and grabbed her hand. "The explosion is proof that Leon is about as bad ass as you believe him to be."

"I'll miss them."

"It's not forever Super Girl." He pulled her to him in a surprise hug. It was awkward for both of them but she returned it and smiled even though he couldn't see it. "Personally I never thought I'd be so glad to be dead."

His words caused her to go silent, and he wondered where she'd gone in her thoughts.

"Hey," He released her then. "We got to move." Leon had been vague about what kind of vehicle he was leaving Jake, although hinted that Jake would appreciate it. He didn't appreciate being kept in the dark about it, but Leon always came through so Jake chose not to argue the point. This time.

"You're right, where to?" Sherry waited for some sense of direction. 

"I'm thinking, we get some dye and take care of that hair." Jake moved forward towards the location, he hoped, that Leon had described.

"Mine? What about yours?" Sherry replied, tightly grasping his arm. 

"Mine's short." Jake hadn't thought about his own, it was short but red. Tall red heads did tend to stand out in a crowd. Jake was 6'3", he stood out more than most.

"Yeah, but they'll be looking for you," she paused, "and on second thought we'll do our eyebrows too."

"Eyebrows? You kidding me?" He was starting to feel sorry he had mentioned it.

"Nope.

They found Leon's choice of vehicle for them after walking south about 100 yards. It was a black motorcycle. Jake whistled in appreciation and Sherry laughed. Leon must have guessed at Jake's appreciation for motorcycles. 

"Well this is the first good idea I've seen since you mentioned dying my hair," said Jake running his hand over the bike. The keys were under the seat, although Jake could have wired it to run if he wanted to. He adjusted his backpack and handed the helmet he found there to Sherry, and put the other one on himself feeling slightly giddy at the idea of riding it. His last bike had been trashed long ago.

She climbed on behind him and he grinned at the familiar position they were taking. She slipped her arms around him and he gunned the bike down the road smiling despite the cold.  _This was more like it._


	23. Chapter 23

Leon stared at the plane's wreckage. Chris was there as well as many other BSAA agents looking among the remains for any bodies. There wasn't much to pick up, the Lear had been so wired to explode there were nothing bigger than the black box they'd recovered. Nothing could have survived inside. But there was no sign at all of anyone in the burning mess. It was a good thing there weren't even pilots on board.

Leon had never seen Chris cry before, but the big man had tears streaming down his face and he'd hit the ground on his knees. It was odd, Leon had never thought of Chris as sentimental, even in Jake's case. Sherry, whom he knew through his sister...maybe. Claire held onto his arm. Tears were streaming down her face as well but Leon knew they were tears of guilt. They hadn't let Chris in on their plan, he'd been busy dealing with Devon's discharge.

"You're sure they're gone?" Chris said for the third time over. Leon hated deceiving Chris like this but he needed to sell their deaths to anyone who might be watching.

He nodded not trusting himself to give them away if he spoke.

"I knew I should have kept better watch," Chris pounded the pavement with a fist. "I never got to apologize to Jake." Leon and Claire exchanged a glance over his head. 

"No one knew what would happen," Claire patted his shoulder. The guilt was killing her. "Jake was a good kid. He would understand." What he would understand Claire didn't know. She shot a questioning look at Leon, who shrugged.

"Who did this?" said Chris, "I thought Neo-Umbrella wanted them alive."

 _No, Chris don't use your brain now_ , thought Leon. "Maybe they thought they would heal?"

Chris's face fell again he sank to the ground his hands grabbing the back of his head as he crouched with his head down between his knees.

 _Sorry Chris_ , Leon thought as Claire put her hands on his shoulders to comfort him.  _I'll let you in on it later…you're going to be so pissed._

 


	24. Chapter 24

The hotel wasn't nearly as nice as the five star Leon had put them up in.

They paid cash for the room. Sherry, after a few minutes of embarrassed silence, set to work on her hair. She stayed in the bathroom the entire time, even cranking on the shower. 

Jake went through both of their back packs to make sure all their weapons were serviceable. He knew that they were, but it kept him from thinking about Sherry in the bathroom.  _Naked._ Or maybe it didn't.

She emerged with her hair and eye brows dyed a dark brown, being wet almost looked jet black. Jake whistled at her. "They teach you that at agent school?" He stared. Her blue eyes seemed to blaze out of her face under that cover of dark hair.

"You'd be surprised," Sherry replied. "If we'd had more time, I would have gotten color contacts for us too."

He just stared at her. "Looks good on you." He added finally before turning away from. They needed to talk and now he found himself unable to bring up the topic. Fighting something which was a hundred times easier than spending time alone with a woman he had feelings for.

Sherry picked up the other box. Jake hadn't been picky. Simply offering a "whatever," when she'd asked him what he wanted.

"Your turn."

"My hair is short." He had taken half a step back like she was a J'avo.

"And a bright reddish color…. you do sort of stick out in a crowd."

"Really?" He turned around and stared at her with a lifted eyebrow. "How so?"

"Well just your hair…and…you're 6'3", just sit down," she finished.

He sighed, "Whatever super girl." He perched himself on a chair with all the grace of someone who spent their life on the move, and said nothing while she applied the color on his short hair.

"Ok, look up at me…." She instructed, which was a mistake because the look he shot her was so piercing she almost backed off of dying his eyebrows.

His eyes bored into her. "Well?" He said.

"Sorry," she muttered. "Just close your eyes. I don't want to get anything into them."

He sighed and did as she instructed. She colored the eyebrows in quickly and looked down at her watch.

"Ok give that ten minutes." She then backed off when he stared up at her again.

"I checked your stuff," he motioned to her bag. "It's all good."

"Thanks you."

They were both silent for a few minutes while Sherry cleaned up the mess from the dye boxes and threw it into the trash.

"You think they'll send me to make up school like they did you?" He joked, breaking the silence.

"I don't think they will send you to any school at all," said Sherry. "You don't exactly need weapons training, or tactical fighting…or" The alarm on her watch rang. "Go rinse that off."

He rose and did as she said without another word,

She turned to if anything else needed to be cleaned up and then jumped when she heard him curse in the bathroom. "What is it?" She yelled through the door.

"Nothing, just taking a cold shower," he snapped back.

"Oh…." Sherry backed off. There were two full sized beds in the room. She put her glock on her night stand and hurriedly changed into her pajamas. She climbed into the bed on the right and waited.

Jake emerged shirtless in his pajama pants.

"Let me see," she tried to be all business again, climbing out of bed and reached up and grabbed his chin and studied his eye brows making sure she hadn't missed a single hair. The hairs on his head looked so dark, almost black and his eyebrows were so dark now, if he wasn't menacing before he certainly looked the part now. The only thing they were going to have a hard time covering now was his scar on the left side of his face. "I'm not sure how we'll hide your scar," she said, "it's pretty unmistakable, I can try to cover it in the morning. I brought make up."

"To hell with that." Now Jake was truly horrified. "That's ok, I'm good."

"This is serious." She still had a hold of his chin and was staring at his face. "Probably one of the most recognizable things about you." She paused then, realizing that they were standing in the room just staring at one another and that he was breathing hard. She dropped her hand and backed off. "I'll fix it tomorrow." She couldn't maintain contact with his gaze. She felt like he was boring holes through her.

She climbed into her bed without looking at him, checked her glock again. Jake looked like he wanted to say something for a moment, but he shrugged and moved over to his own bed.

"Whatever super girl," he said instead.  _God I should probably take another cold shower_.

He climbed into his own bed, the mattress squeaqking under his weight, and slid under the covers facing her bed. She faced him as well and then clicked off the light plunging the room into darkness.


	25. Chapter 25

_It's perfect._

Albert Wesker, Jr. stood in front of his newest creation. He could hardly contain his excitement. He had created an Ustanak. Not only had he done it, but he'd managed to leave some of the man it used to be intact. He spoke the truth when he said he'd give Mac Devon the power to hurt Jake Muller. The Ustanak had been one of the most powerful B.O.W.s created and Wesker had replicated the creature with relative ease, streamlining the process that had killed over 300 people.

While it was true that Devon hadn't had much time to accept his offer, he'd gotten into the car which to Wesker was all the answer he needed as far as whether or not Devon wanted revenge. Devon had been examining his warped body and features. He now stood an amazing 10 feet tall and had been outfitted with matching clothes and boots and body armor. The one thing that Wesker hadn't changed was the one weakness an Ustanak had. Shooting their heart would stop them cold. Wesker thought this was ironic as it was Devon's heart that had landed him in this predicament in the first place. That and his running mouth.

He'd covered it with a steel plate. 

It would be the first time an Ustanak had been released onto US soil. Wesker was excited. He wanted to test the capabilities of such a creature ever since the one in China had been able to rampage through so much territory in its mission to capture Jake Muller. An army of Ustanak's would be unstoppable but only as far as they listened. The previous Ustanak had killed any human or J'avo in its path. While he didn't care if that was the case he couldn't have them rampaging through towns killing just anyone. That was bad publicity when he had buyers. So this time he attempted to leave some of the man intact in the beast. The beast in all appearances was completely loyal to its creator but the man would have other ideas. Devon might even hate him for what he looked like now.

But that man should stop the beast from mindless mayhem, while the beast would stop the man from turning on him.

Wesker clapped his hands. It was beautiful, what he'd done. A hateful balance to be sure, but what a gift he was giving Devon.

The Ustanak that was once 1st. Sargent Mac Devon stood in front of him waiting. Wesker smiled…"I have a hard time believing that Jake and Sherry died in the Lear crash in Syracuse, NY, no matter how nice and pretty of a rushed funeral they were given. Go sniff them out…I know you'll be able to scent them. You'll be taken to the site of the airport, stay out of sight and engage no one unless you absolutely have to."

The Ustanak nodded and walked itself into a large moving van being driven by Stents. Stents had tried grabbing Sherry the first time around had seriously underestimated her abilities. No matter, Stents could be made useful again but for the moment, Wesker put his frustration to good use. The idea of dropping the Ustanak on top of the girl had put Stents into a good mood. Wesker figured down the road Stents would be a perfect Ustanak as well…. although with considerably less brains than Devon had been left with.

Wesker smiled. The pieces were moving around the board.

_Check half-brother._


	26. Chapter 26

The nightmares began again like they always did. Sherry struggled against the bonds that held her, thrashing in her sleep.

Jake sat up in his own bed wide awake listening to Sherry for a moment in the dark. He could see her outline thrashing in the tiny amount of moon light that came in through the window. He could also feel his hatred for Albert Wesker building up. He climbed out of bed and moved to hers when she grew louder.

"Jake no!" He immediately jerked off the covers, dropped his feet to the floor and went to her side.

"Sherry," he whispered, "hey super girl, I'm here." He grabbed her thrashing arms. He'd brought his blanket with him this time and slipped over onto the top cover making sure to keep a blanket securely between them. No sense in startling her a second time. His voice brought her calm.

"Jake," She whispered, "Where were you?" She threw an arm over his chest again and turned into him. But she didn't wake up. It was at that moment that he decided they were going to have to discuss this in the morning. She knew where he'd been, stuck in the same lab building with her for six months but never seeing her until he escaped.

But the nightmares...that was something different.

He tried pulling away from her to go back to his own bed but her arm tightened around him when he moved away.  _Shit,_  he thought.  _I can't do every night._  He yawned, this episode lasted only ten minutes.

_Wesker, half brother or no, you're a dead man._

Five minutes later, he was asleep himself, Sherry had turned over and he'd thrown an arm protectively over her waist in his sleep and pulled her close to him again, neither one of them waking up.

There was no place for them to go, no agenda other than to keep moving. Jake had woken up first. Sherry was curled into his chest and he still had an arm thrown over her waist.  _Too comfortable_ , he thought pulling away. She was still asleep so he climbed out of bed, removing his blanket and tossing it over onto his side. He had no idea where they were going to start only a resolve that they needed to take the fight to Wesker himself.

The cat and mouse bull shit was over.

Sherry stirred an hour later and stretched. Jake was sitting in the only chair in the room watching her while he waited. He was wearing a black T-shirt and blue jeans with his black boots sticking out from under the jeans. His elbows rested on the arms of the chair and his hands were under his chin

"What time is it?" she asked sitting up quickly and glancing down at her lap. His stare was still disconcerting.

"It's only 9am," he sat back. "Relax, there's nowhere we've got to run just yet."

"Oh..." He was still staring at her. "Do we have a plan?"

"Not yet..." He gave her a piercing look. "Tell me about the dreams."

Sherry was horrified. "The dreams? Did I? I mean, did you....?"

"Yeah I did." He confirmed. "It calms you down. Me snuggling up to you like that. Not that I minded." He looked away from her realizing how that might sound. "But I want to know what's going on." He arched an eyebrow at her. "Why you are having them?"

He looked so different at the moment that for a second she couldn't respond. He knew what had happened to her, but she didn't know that he knew. He thought it would help her if she got it off her chest.

And he desperately wanted to know why she kept calling for him.

"Can I get dressed first?" She was hoping to put him off. Even an army of J'Avo would have been preferable to this conversation.

"Quit stalling, Sherry," He leaned forward. "I'm trying to help Super Girl. Trying to understand." He lapsed into silence again, waiting.

She took a deep breath.  _Just say it._  "In China...they cut me...I mean...more than just sliced into me. More than the shrapnel you pulled out of my back." He grimaced when she mentioned that. "They also told me, you'd escaped without me. I believed them...I couldn't believe you'd just leave but I had hoped you did. I mean you owed me nothing and..."

"You didn't know I was still there being a lab rat myself..." He looked down at his hands while she was talking.

"Jake, I've been nearly sawed in half...had my throat cut multiple times. I should have died..." She drew her hands up to her throat with the memory. "And the pain, you would never believe it. I wanted to die."

The gasping she had done as her throat knit back together. She had wanted to die, anything was better than choking on your own blood repeatedly. "But I kept coming back together, and they kept making deeper...." She drew her breathe in slowly suddenly feeling nauseated. Remembering it was too much. Without warning she pitched forward and vomited over the side of the bed.

"Shit!" Jake jumped back away from the vomit at his feet and then went for a paper towel and a cup of water. He stared at his own image in the mirror for a moment. The darker haired version of himself stared back at her. He'd seen plenty of bad things. Experienced plenty and done plenty. But nothing compared to that. His hand went to his own throat. He grabbed the small cup and filled it with water and returned to Sherry's side this time. There wasn't much vomit as she hadn't eaten anything yet. She took the cup gratefully and he sat down next to her.

"I'm sorry Super girl," he whispered. She had begun to cry softly and he didn't know what to do. He put a hand on her back and patted it awkwardly and she leaned into him, so he put his arm around her and just held her. They sat like that for a while until she stopped shaking.

"You thought I left you." He stared straight ahead.

"Yes. But like I said, it's ok. You didn't owe me anything." Her voice was small. It was true that at the time they barely knew each other, but harrowing circumstances sometimes meant you got to know someone a lot faster than wining and dining them ever could.

His arm tightened around her. "Sherry I owe you everything." He leaned his head on top of hers for just a moment letting the awkward silence stretch on. "Why don't you get dressed and we can blow this place." He added. Neither one of them moved right away.

"Jake I want to take the fight to them."

"What?" He glanced down at the top of her head.

"What they did..." She shuddered. "I want to take the fight to them."

He grimaced. His heart ached for her. "You know I'm not going anywhere again." He whispered. "At least not by choice."

She nodded. "But we're not hiding are we." It wasn't a question.

When he looked at her this time he was smiling and there was a dangerous look in his eyes. "No, super girl, we're not."


	27. Chapter 27

The cabin in the woods was abandoned to all appearances. The road leading up to it was partially grown over. Leon had warned him about it and yet he still managed to miss the drive way twice. 

Jake wanted them to show their faces but first he wanted to make sure Sherry was up to par. She'd been on leave because she'd been stressed. And now she was a fugitive on the run. While in the states they were officially dead, several countries around the world had released their images as criminals under various names. He'd watched the news feeds with a little surprise, but who had he been kidding? He knew not everyone would believe they were dead. Those people after the Immortality Virus were definitely high up on the food chain. 

Which unfortunately for Jake made the states safer than the rest of the world. At least for the moment. 

Jake shrugged that off as necessary. At some point they wanted to be caught, but not yet. He began to wonder if Leon and Claire were making any progress. His only objective was to take out his half-brother. Inflicting some of the pain he caused Sherry would be a bonus. He didn't even consider what he'd gone through at his hands comparable to what Sherry had experienced.  _Crazy doesn't run in the family? Yeah right!_ Wesker's words came back to him just then. _Mercenary work is hardly a job for a sane person, don't you think?_

The motorcycle roared right up to the front door. He studied their surroundings for a moment and then moved it to the back before they got off. Sherry yawned and made a move to the front door. Surprisingly it opened easily. There was a breeze blowing through the small building but no wildlife that he could see.

Jake grinned. "Leon was right, no one has been here for a while." Spider webs laced the windows, catching dust and gnats, other than that the place was empty.

Sherry looked at him. "Abandoned?"

"Leon told me about this place because it's not on any safe house listing, or even written down anywhere."

"It looks like a hunting lodge," she muttered noticing there was just one bed in the tiny cabin. She shifted uncomfortably as Jake pushed in behind her through the door. "There's just one bed."

He glanced at it and shrugged. "Let's not pretend I won't end up in bed with you by the end of the night anyway." He muttered under his breath. He was thinking about her nightmares so he was unprepared for the spots of pink that blossomed on Sherry's face. He glanced at her and noticed her embarrassment. He tried to change the subject. "Why don't we get a fire going in here?"

She turned a brighter shade of red. "What?" He exclaimed throwing up his hands. "Jesus Christ, what is the right thing to say here?"

"It's just…well…" she tried to explain, lapsing into an embarrassed silence. "Those are all phrases…that mean…"

He rolled his eyes again. "America," he muttered under his breath. Edonia had its own euphemisms for sex…he decided to not mention any of them right now.

For the next few moments he didn't say anything, concentrating on coaxing a fire into the small fireplace. He reflected on Sherry's embarrassment for a moment and couldn't help but smile. Sherry had been around the world and seen so many bad things, but there were still a few subjects that made her blush like a school girl.

He unpacked their food, dropping some of it into a small cooler as he tried to figure out their next moves.

He knew she could shoot and was cool under pressure, but he wanted to see her hand to hand combat. He had the feeling she was going to need it.

"Do you think Leon and Claire are ok?" She asked as she rolled out their sleeping bags. They had been working methodically and quietly and her voice startled him.

He didn't respond for a moment. "You remember in China when we were separated and we lost him after that tower fell? You remember what I told you?"

"Yes," she said, from her seat on the side of the bed. The memory was clear. She hadn't want to leave Leon and Helena on the other side of a large burning tower that had separated them. Jake had convinced her to go ahead and go meet her traitorous boss Simmons then. She had only gone reluctantly. The city was burning and the only choice at the time was to get Jake into the right hands. Even if they turned out to be the wrong hands.

"And he made it. Didn't he?" Jake snapped her back out of her reverie.

"Yes," it was a whisper. She glanced at him. He was being calm and reassuring, the same thing she had been in Edonia when they had first met. When had they switched roles?

"So he's a bad ass. They'll make it." Jake glanced at her lifting an eyebrow. 

She nodded. Staring at him, the shifting light dancing across her face as the curtains moved in the breeze,  pushing at her dark hair. He missed her blonde hair already.

He reached into the bag and grabbed out two apples. He tossed her one and bit into the other. He loved apples and could get used to them being readily available here. In Edonia, they had been harder to come by. When you got them you ate them slowly and relished them. In the US there were many and people didn't even know what they were missing. He savored the flavor as looked up at the ceiling. He needed an excuse to keep his trap shut right now as he thought of what exactly he wanted to say and how to say it. 

"There's always something I wanted to ask you." He said after a few moments of silence punctuated by the sound of their mutually crunching apples."

"What is it?"

"Back in China, Leon asked me to protect you, instead of wasting Simmons together. Why did you just go along with it? You didn't need protection. You were the last person there who needed protection." Jake stared at the ceiling remembering how in an instant she'd gone from his rescuer to being in need of rescue when Leon was there. Leon had ordered him to take care of Sherry. He hadn't balked at the idea, but the request from Leon had surprised him.

"Old habits die hard I guess," said Sherry. "He didn't know who you were, or why you were there. At least not at that moment. He just knew that at some point Wesker had been after me and it was possible that Neo-Umbrella would do the same. He had no idea I was there for you. Not until later anyway."

"Kind of ironic that we both got captured again wasn't it?" Said Jake grinning up at the ceiling. Leon had charged him with protecting Sherry. It was ironic all things considered. Sherry had been sent to get him out safely at all costs. He spared a glance at her. What was she 5'3" to his 6'3"?

In the bed, Sherry smiled. They hadn't escaped at all but had to be rescued by Chris Redfield and Piers Nevans. She felt a momentary stab of pain. Piers had died that day fighting HAOS. She'd heard about it later from Chris himself who had eventually been picked up floating in the ocean.

She stared at the ceiling. Her parents helped to start this. It was fitting that she cleaned up the mess they had left behind.

"Well for the record, you were the one doing the saving, not him. Not me." Jake finished oblivious to her thoughts. "Next time tell Leon you;'re pretty much indestructible. My own little bad ass super girl rescuing me from the world." His grin got even wider. Sherry didn't reply but smiled to herself.

"Get some sleep, and try not to wake us up, eh?" He grinned when he heard her groan. He laid a sleeping bag out on the floor and got in putting an arm under his head. With his other hand he tossed his core at the trashcan and watched it bounce off the wall and go in. He gave a satisfied smirk and closed his eyes.

"Here," said Sherry holding her core over the side of the bed. "Throw mine."

"Here." He held up his hand and she reached down and dropped the core into it. He tossed it without looking and it hit the wall and went into the trashcan. He smirked knowing that it had gone in. 

"Are you sure, you don't want to just sleep up here?" Sherry broke the silence.

His eyes flew open. "What?" He wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly.

"I feel bad you're down there, I mean…I can make room…and if you are going to be up here already…"

"It's fine," he said. Although it wasn't fine, as her words had caused a few parts of himself to become a little too excited. "Look I'll worry about that, just get some sleep. I'll be right here." He stared up at the ceiling and closed his eyes.

She didn't say a word in return, but he heard her sigh and turn over. A moment later her pants were tossed to the end of the bed along with her boots and jacket.  _Not helping_ , he thought. Her back gun holster came next followed by her bra. He turned away from her and kept his eyes jammed shut.  _So not helping._  He listened to her toss and turn for a while. She was probably just as restless as he was feeling. He opened his eyes to stare at the fire that was slowly starting to die.

Sherry tossed and turned for a while keeping Jake awake.

…and like clockwork she started screaming. Jake who had only been lightly dozing came fully awake and on his feet in an instant before realizing it was only Sherry having a nightmare. This one must have been pretty bad because when he stooped to comfort her she didn't quiet but became fully awake. Him looming over her startled her even more. Before he knew it she had landed a blow to his jaw.

"Sherry it's me!" He said surprised and wrapped an arm around her shoulder pinning her arms into place. His jaw ached but it was starting to fade quickly.

"Jake?" She gasped. She stopped struggling and turned to look at his face.

"Well so much for calming you down." He sat down on his make shift bed next to her cot, leaning against the wall, his arm still around her shoulders. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, but are you-?" She started, he waved her concern away.

"I'm fine," he said. "What was that? It sounded…different…"

She paused. "There is always some person there, I know this sounds stupid…"  
He shot her a look with an eyebrow raised. "Super Girl everything they put you through…" He didn't finish but looked at her.

She took a deep breath. "There is always someone there, a face I can't quite see…"

Jake knew the face she was trying to see in an instant, but he let her finish.

"…but I think it was Wesker. The one who took you."

"He said as much." Jake confirmed looking away from her.

"He talked to you?"

"More like gloated, that bastard sure does love to hear himself talk."

Sherry leaned back and laid her head down on his arm. "When I saw you leaning over me, for a moment I thought I was back in China."

"Yeah, I see the family resemblance," Jake replied not looking at her, his voice laced with sarcasm.

"That's not what I meant."  
"I know it's not." Said Jake, he turned to look at her. "I just hate having to defend myself when it comes to Wesker. I've never met my Father and yet I'm supposed to be just like him." He shrugged. "But that's my problem not yours."

"I don't think you're anything like your father," she said looking at his face from where she lay. "And I knew him."

"I know YOU don't." He replied as he adjusted himself to be a little more comfortable with his arm around her shoulders. His back was to the wall so he leaned his head against it and looked towards the fire. "Get some sleep, we're not going anywhere just yet."

Sherry closed her eyes and sighed. "Want your arm back?"

Jake who had his eyes closed, smiled. "No, not really…its fine where it is." He tilted his face towards her and opened his eyes just enjoying their closeness for a moment. _We really are going to have to talk_. He found her staring back at him, the fire playing over her face, his arm tightened around her shoulder, he was startled. "What?" He asked.

Sherry dropped her eyes, "Nothing."

He started to lean his head back when he felt her fingers tracing the scar down his cheek. Surprise radiated through him with a few other feelings that he couldn't define just then, and with the arm he had already wrapped around her shoulders he pulled her off the cot, into his lap and drew her into a deep kiss.

"Sherry." _What were they doing?_ , "Super girl…I..."

She still had a hand on his face and wasn't pulling away. He couldn't react for a moment as he had never been more terrified of anything in his life, but she wrapped both arms around his neck and simply kissed him again.

 _Oh, god_ , he thought.  _So much for those conversations._


	28. Chapter 28

Her eyes drifted open slowly as Sherry inhaled deeply. Her head was resting on Jake's arm. He was laying behind her with an arm casually thrown over her waist keeping her next to him. His warmth surrounded her against the cold the permeated the cabin. The fire was down to glowing embers.

_Jake._

Her thoughts flew to last night and her face turned pink. Grateful that he was still asleep she snuggled back against him pulling the blanket up to her chin.

He coughed behind her and she froze, not quite wanting to wake him or move just yet. He coughed again, it was a deep sound that made Sherry roll her eyes.  _The man had the antibodies to fight off the C-Virus, which turned humans into Zombie like creatures called J'avo, and yet the common cold gets in?_  

"You going to lay on my arm all morning? Not that I mind, but I really need to take a leak." Jake's voice startled her out of her reverie and she lifted her head off his arm her face going an even darker shade of crimson.

"How did you know?" Sherry asked, keeping the blanket pulled up against her chest.

"Super girl, I've been listening to you breathe for the past few days," He muttered, sitting up himself. He grabbed his pants and proceeded to stand up and let the sleeping bag fall away from himself as he pulled them on. Sherry turned away. He smirked at her reaction, but wisely didn't comment on it and simply walked stiffly into the small bathroom. "Everyone breathes differently when they wake up." He called back.

The cabin was small and cold, so Sherry slipped on her pajamas and put wood into the small fireplace intending to light a fire. Jake emerged from the bathroom, noticed what she was doing and proceeded to light it for her. "Cold?" He grinned. His own arms were covered in goosebumps. "How are you feeling? You know…"

"I'm fine." She snapped. A little too quickly. Which made him smile a little regretfully.

"Sherry, I'm sorry if I hurt you…when we…you know…when I…"

She turned to his face. "I'm fine, Jake." It was inches from hers and she closed the gap quickly and kissed him on the lips hard. She felt a sort of satisfaction when she heard him gasp in surprise before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into his lap. _Too bad we can't stay in this cabin forever._ Sherry mused.

* * *

 

A few hours later found them finally dressed and outside. It was cold and snow littered the ground, their breath showing in the breeze. Both of them in their winter coats and pants.

"I know you can shoot super girl," Jake stared at her. "But I want to see your hand to hand."

  
"It's not bad," she said defensively.

"I know…but what if you have to take on an Ustanak?" He grinned remembering their last encounter with one. Sherry narrowed her eyes. It wasn't as funny to her that the big creature had chased them down. It had knocked her 20 feet across a clearing, a hit which would have killed a normal person. 

"Fine," she said dropping into a defensive crouch. She didn't think she'd survive a beating from an Ustanak and after what had happened to her at the hands of Wesker Jr., she wasn't sure she wanted to. Healing from that would be awful.

Jake came at her swinging, she managed to block most of his hits, an upper cut grazed her jaw as she moved a fraction of an inch too slowly. He paused. "You ok?"

"I'm fine," she said rubbing her jaw. "But I'm going to end up dead if you baby me."

"Baby you?" He paused, not admitting that he had been going easy on her, even when they both knew he had been. Besides she was right no one else was going to go easy on her because she was a woman. "Fine Super girl," his voice took on a low dangerous tone.

Her jaw healed quickly enough and she watched for the blow again as he came at her. For a brief moment she was completely on the defensive as he rained blows at her and then he executed a sweeping kick which took her legs out from underneath her.

She landed on her back with the wind knocked out of her, her vision blackened but she managed not to pass out. She reasoned without her healing ability she might be already passed out. Jake came and loomed over her, concern on his face. "Don't baby me," She muttered, pushing his hand away. She pulled herself up stiffly. When she looked at him again, his eyebrow was raised.

"I know I'm no match for you, but maybe I can surprise someone, catch them off guard."

He frowned. This was going to be harder on him than it was on her. But he knew it was necessary and went at it. They practiced for a few more hours, him finally admitting to himself that she was damn good, although nowhere near as experienced as he was. But hey, he'd been a mercenary a lot longer than she'd been an agent. Plus, she was what, 5'3"? 

Exhausted and covered in sweat they both made their way back towards the cabin. She'd managed to learn to see the upper cuts coming, and jump over his sweeping leg kicks, not to mention she'd blocked several of his hits. Even punched him in the face twice.  _Never had a guy smile about being hit in the nose before,_ she thought _._

But she took more than she gave and he finally called a halt when he saw that she was exhausted.

"Feeling babied yet, super girl?" He asked.

She rolled her eyes and headed back to the cabin. There was dried blood on her jacket where he'd bloodied her nose. He felt bad about that but she blocked the next one and by the time they were sparring again, you could not tell he had ever come anywhere near her face. It had been creepy watching her heal right away.

Yet, he knew he could do the same thing now. It was one subject that they hadn't discussed. A deep rooted fear of Jake's. One day he'd be injured and his arm would explode out like a J'avo's mutated form. An extra set of eyes here or there. a question on the tip of his conscious thought. _Am I still human? Am I like my father?_

The cabin was quiet as they ate a cold dinner of fruit and nuts. Sherry couldn't wait to get her hands on something hot but it was what it was for the moment.

"You ok?" He said looking her over. She was unusually silent.

"Yes," she said stretching. "Just sore that's all." Her body healed but her muscles didn't necessarily heal from exercising as fast as she would like.

"We'll need to head out of here soon."

"I know," Sherry looked away from him. She was perched on the cot with a mug of coffee in her hand. She was enjoying their time here alone, not ready to go out into the real world just yet.

Not ready to face what was waiting out there for them…just yet.

He came and sat with her next to her with his own coffee mug in hand. "Hey, you still with me on this?"

"Yes," she said looking around. "I'm going to miss this cabin though."

He shrugged and pulled her close to him dropping an arm over around her shoulders and setting his own coffee mug on the floor. "We've got one more night. After this is over we'll find our own cabin. Deal?"

"Deal." With that said, she sat down her mug and turned to him. "One more night?" She asked and tugged at her own shirt.

"One." He said before bending down to kiss her.

* * *

 

 

A large figure emerged into the small clearing in the darkness. The forest was unnaturally quiet. Even the normal birds were silenced by it's presence.

It had taken Devon a few days to track them down. He'd obeyed his orders perfectly, steering clear of everyone and everything. They were in the wind for most people but not Devon as he was now. At first he'd reveled in the abilities he had. But tracking them had taken long and his attention span was short. His temper was shorter and he just wanted to find them now. He was cross and the only thing that kept him moving was the idea that he could with his bare fists smash Jake Muller into smithereens. His human mind wondered what Sherry would think of him now. No doubt she'd be horrified. His beast half wanted her blood. He kept that part of himself calm with the idea that he would soon have Muller's. This whole situation was Muller's fault after all.

He came upon the cabin so suddenly that he was surprised to see lights inside of it. He'd been running their trail for days picking it up where they stopped. A bloodhound would be jealous of his ability to pick up a scent. He was like a shark which could detect a drop of blood in millions of gallons of water. Except his quarry was treading air not water.

His hearing was also superb and with it he could hear them talking in the cabin, and then kissing. That made his blood boil and within seconds he was stomping through the small clearing and bashing the door in.  _Oh yes,_  he thought.  _I'll have his blood._  It was one of the few coherent thoughts he managed to form.

The door to the cabin splintered in just as Jake had pulled Sherry's shirt off. Everything else that happened next seemed to happen in slow motion.

The Ustanak barreled into the room not quite fitting and smashing up the building in its wake. As the cabin walls fell away in its rage Jake and Sherry managed to fling themselves outside into the snow. Sherry was shivering, her bare arms covered in goosebumps. But having managed to grab a sidearm she pointed it at the beast in front of them.

The creature roared as it came out of the wreckage of the cabin. Jake was on his feet in an instant attempting to locate his bike in the mess. Sherry fired bullets at the Ustanak hoping it would chase her. Its dark hair reminded her of someone she'd met before. It was close cropped not long like the last creatures had been. The first Ustanak she'd met before had about 5 inches of hair that had hung off to the side of its head. This one was almost military style cut. Its face wasn't quite as deformed and misshapen but it definitely had an angular quality that was no longer human. She remembered facing her father suddenly, not being able to recognize him as a human being as he chased her down attempting to turn her into what he was.

It turned on her and she froze in fear staring open mouthed at the raw power of the creature in front of her, forgetting even how cold it was.

The Ustanak was yelling something repeatedly, which the previous one they'd encountered had never done.

"Jek, Jeeeek, Jek Moola." It too, had a breast plate covering the one sensitive area on its body. Sherry wondered how they could get it off. They barely escaped the last time they encountered one of these creatures. There was no handy lava pit nearby to drop it in and burn the plate away this time.

"Jek Moola." The strange sound came again and Sherry's eyes widened in surprise.

"Is it saying your name?" She yelled incredulously to Jake.

"Yeah, what can I say? I got an Ustanak fan girl club!" He shouted back attempting to keep his distance and get to his bike. It was the only way they were getting away from this unscathed. This Ustanak still had both hands on both arms and was quite effective at using them. Still larger and slow, Jake had no intention of getting close. 

"Fan girls?" Sherry said, not quite believing he's just made a joke at a time like this. They circled warily on each side of the creature which was turning as if trying to decide which one it wanted to attack first as it stood in the piles of what used to be a cabin. Flames from their small fire licking up to attack the ruined structure.

"Kind of ugly though," Jake said. "Why can't I get the ones that don't want to kill me?"

Sherry fired at the creature, and it turned on her. It stopped shouting "Jeeek," and started roaring out "Shawwwy, shawy, shawwwwwy."

"Looks like I'm not the only one," Jake shouted as he ran forward and pulled his bike up out of the snow.

As the creature advanced on her Sherry wondered why it looked vaguely familiar. Then it hit her,  _1st. Sargent Mac Devon_. His short cropped brown hair and features now stretched over the titanic frame of the Ustanak.

It was him.

"Oh my god…Devon?" She was bewildered, she knew he'd disobeyed orders and had been discharged from the BSAA, but to turn him into an Ustanak. It was beyond her comprehension. She just stared as the creature advanced on her, her jaw hanging open.

"Sherry run!" That was Jake, he saw her freeze but didn't understand what was happening.

The Ustanak advanced on her and came to a stop and just stared down at her. "Shaaawwwy." Inside the Ustanak a war was taking place. Devon did not necessarily want to hurt Sherry but the beast part of him did. Her voice had penetrated the beast to the man inside. The two minds battled for a moment causing the creature to stand there and stare. _What were the orders again? Bring them back to the base. Bring Sherry back to the base. Beat up Muller. Bring Sherry and Jake back to the base._

Sherry didn't know what to do in that moment. She didn't understand what was going on inside the Ustanak. It was not attacking, just staring, her bare arms were shaking uncontrollably in the cold, her teeth were chattering.  _Devon?_  It had to be.

"Fuck." Jake on the other side of the demolished cabin wasn't sure why they weren't moving. He had his bike up, but with the creature so close he wasn't going to be able to swoop in and grab Sherry. And he sure as hell wasn't leaving without her.

He pulled out a glock and pulled the slide back, the click it made sent the creature staring in his direction. Once it locked onto him it let out a roar and charged across the clearing.  _That's more like it_ , he thought.  _Come to me you son of a bitch._


	29. Chapter 29

Ada stared at the results in front of her. Getting the sample hadn't been easy…the layers of Neo-Umbrella were hard to peel away and yet the results were here and she wasn't sure what to make of them. What was Albert Wesker thinking? It was a brilliant move on his part maybe, or some back up plan of his? The man was psychotic, brilliant but psychotic.

And now she was sharing them.

This was not her normal mode of operation. She did not share information about her employers, missions. Not ever...

And yet...

Leon, Chris, and Claire met her in the small Café just outside of Queens.

"You stopped us from going to China," said Leon. "Why?" He was all business today. It was one of the few times he had run into Ada when there were no bullets flying over their heads.

"Better be a good reason." Chris said. He still found it hard to look at her. Even though he'd been told and knew the woman who'd killed his unit was a clone name Carla Radames. He had chased her down through China and watched her fall off a building to her death. And yet, here she was breathing, walking, still at it.

"Look at this." She handed the paper to Leon who had extended a hand to take it. She saw his eyes widen as he read what was in front of him. He then handed the paper to Claire, who after showing her own surprise passed it to Chris.

The top of the Paper Read "Project Resurrection: Emergency Protocols"

Chris read the paper quickly. "That explains a few things," he said. "Like that guy we saw at the bottom of the hill, who took Jake. I could have sworn it was Wesker back from the dead. Looks like he is."

"His clone at least. It's not out of the realm of possibility and not like they haven't done it before. Although oddly enough…his clone did not seem to know he's a clone." Ada looked at her cup of tea, letting it grow cold.

"What do you mean?" Claire leaned forward in her seat.

"He thinks he's Wesker's son too." Leon said remembering. "Jake said he called him half-brother."

"You realize if he figures that part out," said Claire. "He'll be able to do all the things the original Wesker did. Maybe worse." She paused, "Why would he take Jake?"

Ada looked at her. "C-antibodies, perfect test subject, no loss on his part if Jake didn't survive."

"Why would he do that to his own son?" Claire's face clearly showed her disbelief.

"His own son?" Ada stared at Claire. "You've met Wesker right? The original did not even know Jake existed. Why would he care? He has grand plans for himself not his progeny. HE'S going to live forever. Don't you get that?"

"Hard to picture." Claire finally said. "They just have so many similarities…" She trailed off. Everyone else stared at her with their mouths hanging open. Except for Ada who was looking at her with an expression of disdain.

"They aren't anything alike," Chris broke the silence.

"But they look so much-" Claire started, aware she was fighting a losing battle here, unable to let go.

"Anyone like Wesker would have ditched Sherry in China, not saved her," Leon said cutting in. He was surprised at Claire's stubbornness on the issue. He remembered she'd once been held captive by Wesker many years ago.

Chris shuddered. He remembered the last time he'd fought Albert Wesker. No one wanted to repeat that. "Why would he clone himself?" He asked out loud to change the subject at the same time giving his sister a sympathetic look. He had come to terms with Jake on his own. But he'd seen the kid up close and watched him go struggle through the decision of whether or not to shoot his father's killer when he had the chance. He hadn't and Chris respected him all the more because of it. Claire would have to come to that decision on her own.

"These are from Wesker's lab in this country. One that wasn't destroyed at the time." Ada said. "It's very possible he will never know."

"Where's this lab?" Asked Leon.

"Gone." Ada looked a little smug as she said it.

Leon decided to take her word for it. "The point is…Wesker is still in the States."

"And so are Sherry and Jake," Claire finished.

"What?" Chris said surprised for the first time. "They're not dead?"

"Oh god," said Claire. "Chris I'm sorry, I meant to tell you they were never on the plane but we haven't had a moment…"  
Leon had the decency to look sheepish in front of Chris who was clearly angry.

"Both of you knew?"

"Sorry Chris," Claire said again. "We had to let them go, Neo-Umbrella was just going to keep chasing them if they thought they were still alive."

"And we had to sell it," Leon added. "Sorry Chris."

Ada shrugged. "Do you really think Wesker Jr, here is just going to assume they died in the crash?"

Leon shrugged. "They're in the wind. Plenty of cash, no cards, hopefully in the back country somewhere."

This time it was Ada who shrugged. "Neo-Umbrella has other ways of finding someone. Sherry and Jake would never see them coming till it was too late."

"What are you not saying?" said Leon.

"I'm saying you should consider all possibilities," said Ada. "They're too important to just give up. Too many high profile people would pay for something to keep them alive longer, or stronger. If Wesker got that virus to work on just anybody…think of who would pay for it." She paused. "It wouldn't have to work on anyone…if he did that right he could take out quite a few heads of state. Or any other shadow governments. It's a win win situation for him."

Leon considered this. "We need to find them before he does."

"And then what?" said Ada. "Hide them? How many know about them in your own government? Besides," she added. "Are they wrong for wanting the abilities that Jake and Sherry now have?"

Leon shot her a glance with narrowed eyes. He never knew what side she was on, or who she really worked for. In the past he figured she worked for Wesker but with him out of the picture, or out for a short time. "Neither one of them asked for this." He answered. "Sherry is a friend and Jake is kind of growing on me."

"But are they wrong?" Ada pushed.

"What are you getting at?" Leon said feeling his temper start to give way. "They were forcibly taken against their will and things were done to them by people who should have known better." Sherry's own parents, went unspoken.

"Just seeing where you are on the morality line." She said. Her face had smoothed back over to its usual passivity and she revealed no hint of what she was thinking or feeling.

"We need to figure out who all the players are," said Claire to break the tension.

"The players?" Ada shrugged, amused. "The players would scare you to death."

"Let's hope Jake is as good as we think he is." Muttered Chris. He had watched the exchange between Leon and Ada with interest and felt pity for Leon. Leon was chasing someone who would always be a ghost. _I'm getting too old for this. I need to call Jill._


	30. Chapter 30

The ground shook each time the Ustanak's boot hit the ground. Jake cringed even as he took a few shots at the charging behemoth, knowing they weren't going to do any good. The creature was a nightmare of muscle, torn skin where the muscle had grown too quickly and oozing stitches, dressed in large combat pants, boot, crossed with leather, easily outweighing the last Ustanak he'd fought.

"Shit." He dropped his gun into it's carrier and in one swift motion had the motorcycle up and shooting away from the Ustanak, showering it with snow and dirt.

Jake managed a half circle before turning around and driving up alongside Sherry. She was shivering uncontrollably now.

"Damn it, Sherry, get on…" Her teeth were chattering and she managed to climb on and wrap her bare arms around him. He knew he needed to get her to some kind of shelter and soon. Looking around he spotted the weird moth like bug creatures the Ustanak used to hunt its prey. Feeling really pissed off now he took a shot at the one hovering five feet over them dropping it, and as the Ustanak itself hit the clearing again he took off towards the road. He could hear its roar of anger as it charged behind him but his main worry was getting Sherry back into something warm. Riding through freezing weather on a motorcycle was the furthest thing from that. He was still wearing a long sleeved shirt himself and was freezing; he could only imagine what she was going through.

Knowing there wasn't a lot of time and not really wanting to test out their healing abilities in freezing weather, he thought quickly…They could double back for their gear but that in itself was risky. "Hold on Sherry!" He yelled. She squeezed him in reply. Knowing he didn't have much time to warm her up but knowing they needed something now he panicked at first. That hunting lodge had all their stuff and now they were driving off into the freezing night with nothing but the clothes on their backs…or lack of in Sherry's case.

Jake was mentally kicking himself for letting his guard as well. _Too relaxed_ , he thought. _Got too comfortable and look what happened._

They'd been gone about 20 mins and even on the bike, Jake figured it would only take a couple hours for the Ustanak to catch up. Not much time at all. Then he heard it…the sound of a train.

Inspiration came just then. He punched the bike forward hoping that Sherry would hold on the entire way and headed toward the sound, up ahead he could see the train moving through the trees. He would have to get the bike alongside it and swing them both onto it. Bringing it forward he accelerated to the speed of the train. He could still feel Sherry's arms around him, and he glanced down at them and noticed they were pink. "Hold on Sherry!" He yelled over the wind, his own teeth starting to chatter. "We're jumping! Hold on to me and let go of the bike!"

For what seemed like a long ten seconds, she had her arms wrapped around him tightly and he was hanging loosely to the bike then he lunged. He managed to grab the side of the train managing to swing both of their bodies on board the open train door. The whistling wind went right by them as they rolled inside.

"Here we go…" he stuttered. He was numb himself but it felt so much better to be out of the wind. Sherry was shivering and her arms were pink, he pulled her into the corner, lifted his shirt and stretched it over both of them and wrapped himself around her. It was like having an ice cube strapped to his chest, they were both shivering violently now. He waited for the motorcycle to explode but that never came, amazingly it had lain itself down next to the tracks.  _Sorry Leon._

Sherry's eyes were closed and he couldn't tell if she was asleep or not. He couldn't tell which way the train was heading or what they would do when it was time to get off. He pulled her closer trying to spread any kind of warmth he could to her to keep her from freezing. "Come on super girl," he whispered rubbing her arms.

He kept rubbing her arms and back and at some point completely exhausted, he fell asleep.

* * *

 

Warmth slowly returned into Sherry's body and with it some pain. She bit down on her lip trying to keep from crying out. Her head was tucked into Jake's shoulder, his head was dropped onto hers and she was half wrapped in his shirt, half with his arms around her. They were skin to skin and she could feel her healing ability take over as her fingers went from painful to just cold. She wondered if he felt the same way when his body healed. His breath came in regular intervals as she realized he was asleep. She was still shivering but nothing like the hypothermic cold she had just experienced. His body felt incredibly warm against her. She hoped she was returning at least some of the warmth he was giving her.

The motorcycle ride, catching the train, and just plain shivering in the cold had taken its toll on him. He had crashed wrapped around her. She thought about the frantic ride to get away, and pulled away trying to look see into his face. His scar ran down the left side of his face, with his long nose and pointed chin. He looked so different asleep than when he was awake. The worries he normally carried were gone.

She shifted back towards his chest again and his eyes flew open and locked onto her.

"Sherry?" He whispered drawing his arms tighter around her.

"I'm fine…"

"OK." He didn't say anything else for a moment, just stayed wrapped around her.

"We got a plan?" She finally asked, squirming a little. Being in his arms was like being strapped to a sun.

"Yeah well, when it gets to be day light, we're jumping."

She nodded. They didn't want to be caught in a train station with just one shirt between them.

"Where do you think we're going?"

"No idea, super girl this is your country not mine." He smiled, and then yawned, still exhausted and closed his eyes. In a moment his breathing became more relaxed and regular. Sherry laid her head down against his chest again as exhaustion washed over them both.


	31. Chapter 31

Jake opened his eyes, the sun was blazing down and the train was still moving. "Well, shit." He muttered. He had no idea what time it was, how much time had passed, or even where they were. Sherry was asleep against his chest; she was so warm now he was surprised he hadn't woken up sooner. "Super girl." He whispered into her ear. He didn't want to move just yet but the girl had serious issues with sleeping on him when he needed to take a leak. "Hey, we've got to move," he tried again.

"Mmmm?" She mumbled her eyes opening slowly.

"Feeling ok?"

"Fine," she muttered still a little groggy.

"Here," he pulled his shirt off the rest of the way and let it drape over her. "Keep it for now."

"It's a little large," she replied stretching. "You are going to be cold."

 _A little? It's a freakin’ dress on you._ He grinned, "I'm 6'3", you are five foot nothing. I’ll be fine." He stood up and moved to the side of the train. "Sorry," he said. "Nature calls." He opened the front of his pants away from her and tried peeing off the side of the train.

"Yeah, no kidding," she replied suddenly uncomfortable. "How am I supposed to answer?"

"You know they always leave that out in every good book."

"What?"

"How the heck do these guys on the run ever go to the bathroom? It's like they never go, or they have super bladders. That make much sense to you?"

Sherry laughed despite herself. "Can you imagine that? If they showed the hero, or damsel in distress taking a leak?"

"Yeah well that kind of knowledge would have been helpful for you right about now."

"I didn't know you read that much."

"I play the piano too, remember? I'm fucking cultured." He grinned.

She smiled. "Not helping me now."

"Sorry." He zipped and turned around. "Now you…"

She reddened. "I'm not peeing off the side of the train."

"Well I was going to suggest you squat over there…" He pointed to the other side of the train. "I can get us a place to clean up when we get off as soon as we figure out where we are."

She peered outside the train, "can we just jump?"

"Yeah if you feel like hitting one of those trees," he said smiling. "And bursting."

"Turn around."

"What?"

Turn around." He was not going to watch this.

"Look I've already seen you na-" Jake started.

"Oh god, would you just do it!" She started unbuckling her pants.

"Fine," he couldn’t help but laugh at her discomfiture. "I was also going to mention that I have a large wad of cash in my pants pocket still. We can find a hotel to clean up in as soon as we pass a small town. We've been traveling all night should be safe for a night or two."

"It's warmer," she noted as she pulled off her pants, squatted, and peed. She was mortified. If Jake had so much as turned his head, she was considering pushing him off the train herself. She had a small paper towel in her pocket, relieved she wiped and tossed it off the train and stepped away from her mess. Putting her own pants back on, she smoothed down his shirt over her torso. It came halfway down to her knees.

"Ok, turn around now."

He did and whistled when he saw her. "You ready to jump ship now?" He asked.

"Now?"

"Well yeah, look, little more space. You're not going to hit a tree."

She glanced and saw that he was right. "Plus, it's warmer," she said smiling. "I can give you your shirt back."

"Uh, won't it be weird for us to show up with you shirtless and me fully clothed? I'm good."

She paused "Ok, when you're ready…"

Suddenly Jake stopped for a moment, he looked troubled. "Wait a minute, all business aside…"

"What is it?" She was eyeing the thinning landscape as they swept along, not really looking forward to the jump.

"I…, we were careless." He said to her. "I was careless. I didn't protect you, I knew we should have moved on and then that creature attacked us, and you were almost frozen to death." He looked down, "I should have been more alert, but I was distracted…and I don't want that to happen again."

Sherry stiffened. "Jake, I…"

"I'm sorry Sherry," he said. There was pain on his face when he said it. "I don't want you to be hurt and I got your hurt by not paying attention and I should have been better at keeping my guard up."

Sherry said nothing. She just looked out at the thinning landscape, the air whipped her short hair around her face. "You picked now to tell me you think we made a mistake?" She finally said as the forest fully gave way to open fields.

"Sherry," he started again. “That’s not— “He came to stand next to her and suddenly without warning she leapt from the train. His surprise was short and he leapt after her. They both hit the ground rolling and Sherry came up to a standing position first followed by Jake about twenty feet away.

"You ok?" She said without looking at him. Her eyes watered and he realized she was close to breaking down. After the night she’d had, he couldn’t blame her. He felt like an ass.

"Yeah, but Sherry," he tried again breathing hard. He had a scratch down his left arm that was rapidly closing over. He made a point of not looking at it.

"Don't." She said quickly. "Let's just do what we've got to do."

"But—"

"Just don't say it was a mistake. Just don't." She said, grimacing. She looked down the line to where the train was still rushing by them. "Let's head that way until we see some sign of civilization."

"Can we talk?" He said walking behind her.

"Talk? Look I'm sorry that you think I'm slowing you down…"

"Jesus Christ, Sherry, is that what you really think?"

"I'm sorry was there something else?" She slowed and turned to face him. He grabbed her shoulders through the shirt and yanked her to him and planted a hard kiss on her face. When he let her go again, she was breathless.

"The biggest mistake I made was waiting, even that 6 months to find you." He paused. "You don't slow me down. I'm angry at myself because I let you down. I can't lose you Sherry. Do you understand? I just can't, not after--." He stared at her face. "And then on the other hand, I'm never going to have a normal life. I'm always going to be hunted because of my Father-." He looked away. "I don't want that for you. Don't ever think that I would think less of you, for any reason." He said pulling apart.

Sherry stared at him for a moment then burst out laughing. "You idiot. Normal life? Are you kidding me? I have the G-virus, I'm never going to be able to live a "normal" life as you so eloquently put it."

He paused for a moment and scratched his head. "So, we'll just throw our fates together then huh?"

"Is that a fancy way of asking me to marry you?" Sherry snapped. She was half joking but his hand grabbed hers and he jerked to a stop.

"If we get out of this alive…" He started, "I'm getting you down that aisle."

"But—"

"Why not?"

"Well that wasn't a no," Sherry spluttered.

Sherry looked up at him realizing that he intended to stick around no matter what. She didn't say a word and started forward.

They walked in silence for a while. The train was long gone and when it finally pulled away from them, the quiet was deafening. "Where are we?" said Jake finally.

"No idea," said Sherry looking around.

"What?" said Jake, "your country right?"

"America is big, easily 100 times larger than Edonia." Sherry kept moving forward.

"Hey at least I know where I'm at when I'm there in Edonia," Jake snapped, slightly defensive. Edonia was still a touchy subject for him.

"Ha," said Sherry. "Not possible here. Hey look, a sign!" She pointed. Jake squinted at it. 10 miles to Paducah.

"Where's Paducah?"

"Middle of the country." She smiled, "Mostly rural, good place to get lost in I guess."

"Rural? Fuck." He paused. "New people don't get lost in rural, that is where you stick out the most."

"If we're lucky we'll find a barn for the night. If not, well…steer clear of the local wildlife."

"I see," said Jake taking a swift glance around, because he really did not see or know what was there. It couldn't be worse than the giant walking behemoth chasing them with no brains and more muscles than twenty men.

Avoiding the main roads, they kept walking and it was dusk before they stopped again.

They found a barn as orange streaked across the sky. It was an old tobacco barn with no tobacco and it had a second layer that oddly enough contained straw. Sherry pointed out that there was sheep in the field that they'd hopped a fence to get into.

They settled in. Jake watched the colors go more intense, even Sherry stared at the sky.

"It's so clean here," he finally said staring up at the sky. "Edonia is…well battle torn. Lots of smoke. Ashes. This… is different. Clear."

"I thought you'd been to other places…like South America? You weren't very specific."

"Jungles mostly," He replied fingering the scar on his face. Sherry wondered if he realized he was doing it. "Not much of a sunset from the ground, but I could see some color. This is beautiful." He was looking at her, watching the light play on her face, Sherry was staring up at the sky.

"Yeah…it is."

"You know what else?" He said still looking at her. "Your nightmares have stopped."

She hadn't even thought about them since they'd been in the cabin. "You're right, she said. We've found the cure for my nightmares. Apparently, it's running for our lives. Now if we could just cure the common cold, we'd be all set."

"I am sniffling." He admitted.

"It will go away soon."

"Built like a tank, remember," he said forcing a smile.

"Tanks don't get colds." She replied turning and looking at him. He was still staring at her. The sun was rapidly descending and the air was getting colder.

 _He's shirtless_  she realized,  _and I've got his shirt._  She crawled closer to sit in front of him and raised the back of his shirt up. It was already stretched way out of proportion and would be huge on him as well whenever he got it back.

"What are you doing?" He said.

"Get in," she said, "it's going to be cold."

He smiled but didn't argue. She was afraid he might after their earlier conversation. He just wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him. She came just under his chin and curled up into his stomach. He smiled over her head but she couldn't see it.

"It was Devon," Her voice came out of nowhere, ruining the perfect moment for him. "1st Sargent Mac Devon."

"What was?" Jake was still trying to figure out why she’d brought the guy up.

"The Ustanak." She replied grimly. There was no doubt about it. The features were much less twisted than the last one they'd encountered. The creator seemed to have improved on the design. Gone was the twisted face half hidden under a mask. The whole face was there complete but stretched with no gaps or holes.

"Jesus," Jake whispered. "That guy already hated me. Now let's turn him stupid and give him muscles?" He paused a moment. "Is that why he froze? I mean over there with you. Did he recognize you?" Jake had been pondering the creature's behavior. It was vastly different from the previous Ustanak they had encountered. The other one never had never hesitated to kill anyone.

"I think so," she said.

"Well I'm not sorry I shot him then," Jake settled back against the straw. It wasn’t the worst bed he’d ever slept in.  "That guy shot me in the back …. while he was human."

"Jake! You're missing the point." Sherry shifted against him. "They did that to him, in such a short amount of time..."

"That means their facilities were close," He finished. He kissed the back of her head. "Super girl, you are a genius."

"Looks like I'm the one with an Ustanak fan club this time," she tried to shift and face him but there was only so much room in a single shirt.

Jake snorted a laugh. Maybe he was rubbing on her just a bit. How many lucky people got stuck with an Ustanak fan club after all?


	32. Chapter 32

Chris stood next to the train tracks. The motorcycle had lain on its side for a while now and was half buried in snow. He was sure it had been laying there for a few days. It had been spotted from the air by one of their helicopters. Chris radioed in, his gear felt heavy. "Leon, we found it." There was no blood, no bodies, no indication that a confrontation had occurred at this spot. It must have been the get away point. 

Their wild leap had been a good one, even up to the guess that Jake would get them on the train in the most dangerous way possible. If Jake was that predictable...

He didn't mention what the "it" was that he'd found. They headed southwest was for certain. "Guess we'll follow that line down." Leon's voice came through the speaker into his ear.

Suddenly a roar cut through the air. Leon's voice cut through the ear piece. "What was that?"

A loud roar came through the trees. Ustanak. It was the only thing it could be. Chris's eyebrows shot up. He remembered the description of the one given by Sherry but seeing one here, he wasn't sure how she and Jake had survived the encounter. Giving Jake some credit for their survival, he recalled Leon's words from his friend Helena. That maybe Jake wasn't entirely sane. Leon, Helena, Jake, and Sherry had battled one together and thought it crushed under the tower that fell between them. But Jake and Sherry had gone on to battle it two more times, and if Sherry was to be believed, Jake had battled it "mano a mano." He grimaced. He'd never seen that in a report before. But that was exactly what Sherry had written in her report. The creature roared but made no attempt to attack them. It plodded its way down the rail lines, several giant bug like creatures flying out ahead of it. It would stop every so often and lift its nose into the air and continue walking.

One BSAA agent lay on the ground behind it, having been swept out of the way and knocked unconscious. Chris ran to where he lay and laid a finger on his throat. The man definitely had a pulse. He checked the name tag. "Nelson."

"Get this guy out of here, Brom." Another agent stepped forward to collect poor Nelson. Chris stood and motioning the rest of his unit to follow after him he started walking behind the Ustanak.

Leon and Claire were soon following behind him.

The creature kept moving forward. With no one in front of it, it kept moving forward its progress unhindered. It paid no heed to the agents behind it. Its quarry was in front of it.

"This one is different," said Leon. "It doesn't care about the rest of us. The last one we encountered killed everything in sight."

"Programmed?" asked Claire suddenly as they walked behind the creature.

"Maybe," said Leon. "The last one followed Jake and Sherry, although from what Sherry specifically wrote it was tracking Jake the whole time."

"Jesus, and she stayed with him?" Chris said.

"Guess they're both a little crazy," Claire said smiling. She wasn't fond of Jake but knew that Sherry was willing to go through hell with him. No one else stood a chance for her affections now.

Chris said nothing. He remembered the moment Jake had pointed a gun at him. It had been just after Chris confessed to being the one who'd killed Albert Wesker, Jake's biological father. While it was true that Jake had never known his father, the confession had still made him angry. Chris sometimes wondered if the anger had stemmed from the fact that that he'd killed Wesker, or the timing of when he decided to tell Jake. He didn't know what had made him tell Jake then and there. Seeing the emotional turmoil on the kid's face had thrown Chris. But it had taken Jake's words:  _"There are more important things at stake here than you and me,"_  for him to see that Jake Muller was about as far from Albert Wesker as the East is from the West. Until that moment, Chris had wondered if they'd run into another Wesker that he'd have to put down again. He'd had his own nightmares about that. He hoped that they would run into Jake again, at least long enough for him to take back those words  _"I see your father in you."_  At the time, it had seemed harmless to say, but it was evident that Jake was deeply ashamed of being Wesker's son and did not want to have any connection to him whatsoever.

Chris wanted the opportunity to take those words back.

Now in light of the knowledge that there was a clone of Albert Wesker running around he worried about Jake having to face his own father. He had a feeling if Jake had met the real Wesker he would not hesitate to pull the trigger. Considering how he felt about Sherry and what Wesker had put her through, Chris didn't doubt it for a second.

Now following this creature which was ignoring them completely Chris wasn't sure how this was going to end.

"Listen." Said Claire suddenly.

In front of them the Ustanak moved slowly but surely making sounds as it went. Not the roaring they heard when it struck the BSAA agent. But something else entirely.

"Shawwwwy, shawy…shaaawwy."

Chris stopped, Leon almost running into him. "Is he saying her name?"

Leon listened for a moment. "At least we know who he's tracking this time."

Christ studied the close cropped hair of the Ustanak, there was something familiar about it but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"What's the plan?" said Chris finally.

"Follow it?" Leon said.  _Neo-Umbrella can make their own scent hounds,_  Ada had said. And here it was plodding along.


	33. Chapter 33

Jake stood looking at an orange sunset. The air was chilly, but he didn't mind the cold. It reminded him of Edonia, the last winter he spent there. He was back in his own shirt again, it was slightly stretched nothing he cared about fixing. His mind was too occupied with the chase. There was an awful suspicion in his mind. Wesker had been ahead of them this whole time. The guy was dead, and yet he still seemed to win. How was that possible?

His entrance into Jake's life had been post-mortem and yet he wouldn't stay dead, always in the shadows leering at him. _You'll never escape my legacy._ Jake shook his head against the thought. Son of the world's most notorious killer, he had better things to do than worry about whether or not his father was going to leap out at them like a boogeyman. 

He turned his thoughts toward the Ustanak. The creature could have easily tracked them. This one was probably no different than the last one he'd faced. It had been everywhere shadowing them, out maneuvering them, and finally capturing them. Not to mention it had been nearly impossible to kill.   

Beside him Sherry was doing her own fuming. She was pacing back and forth. It was growing dark and they had started to head back north, now were looking to spend the night in another barn. They'd stolen a long sleeve plaid shirt that fit her well enough, taking it off a clothes line. Jake had used the clothespin to tack up a 5$ bill to the line in its place.

She'd made a crack about being an official country girl and he'd just stared at her not understanding the joke.

 

Sherry didn't say anything for a minute. The sun was going down and it was getting colder again. Jake wouldn't say it out loud but he was simply looking forward to hiding out in a barn and getting close with her again. Even if it was just snuggling all night. He'd slept in worse, it was in his job description. Trenches, bombed out cities, a barn was a slice of heaven compared to those. "Barn it is," Jake had said glancing at her. Now more than anything he wanted to find this Wesker kid Jr. and put a bullet between his eyes.

To do that they needed to go back towards New York to where they'd first encountered the Ustanak.

"Listen…" whispered Sherry suddenly.

Jake paused. "Is that…a-?"

"Yes!" Sherry grabbed his hand. "Train."

"Uh, Sherry."

"What is it?"

"That thing is going to be going an excess of 50 or 60 mph, you going to just catch it?"

The exuberance died on her face. "Something like that…maybe it won't be going that fast when it gets to us?"

"We could hope Super Girl." He was listening. Depending on how far out of the station it was would determine how fast it was going. "Going back," he gazed at her. "You sure you're up for it?"

She shot him a look that would have skewered him dead on the spot. "Of course I am, if I have to walk the whole way there." To prove her point, she started walking North along the tracks.

"Might have to if we don't catch that train," he muttered walking behind her. He glanced around them, the tracks were starting to head into a wooded area. "Hold on," he said. "Climb a tree and jump on…"

Sherry turned around and smiled at him. His heart fluttered. _God, I never knew how romantic jumping onto a fucking moving train was going to sound to her, we are both crazy._

"Maybe not a tree," Sherry said pointing but that rock ledge might work!" It was a rocky outcrop that had been carved away just big enough for a train to fit through. The tracks ran right through it.

"Hurry!" Jake started climbing, keeping her ahead of him.

Sherry climbing up as fast as she could with Jake right behind her. They made it to the top just in time to see the engine go screaming by.

"Ready?" He yelled.

"Not really." She replied back and closed her eyes for a moment. _Deep breathes_. She told herself. _This is no worse than that motorcycle ride you took in China. And Jake was driving at the time._

"Jump!" They both leaped into a coal car. It was sheer luck that it was a coal car that happened to be passing underneath. Coughing they managed to climb towards the edge together.

"I'm going to be feeling that all night." Said Jake reaching out a hand and pulling Sherry to him. They were both covered in black dust and Sherry rubbed her face leaving a black smudge across her face. Jake grinned at her but didn't say a word as he probably looked just like her.

"No we're not," grinned Sherry. Jake suddenly knew what she meant. The healing ability they both now had. They would both be 100% fine in a few minutes. He shrugged. He hated the idea that Wesker had injected him with something. It hadn't been his choice. He still had not come to terms with it.

"What now?" Sherry settled down next to him trying to get as comfortable as one could on a bed of coals.

"Now we wait here." Jake grimaced as the wind whipped over their heads. "I'm not sure how well we'd do finding an open cart like we did the last time. But I don't want to hit a tunnel before we find it."

Sherry nodded settling down next to him. Under the edge of the car they were out of the wind and traveling much faster than they would have been otherwise.

"Here," he put out an arm and pulled her into his chest. At least one of them was going to be comfortable, he thought. Laying on a bed of coals again, was not the worst bed he had slept in before. But it was much better traveling than in the open air. Sherry snuggled into his side grateful for the embrace. They were both covered in black charcoal smudges.

"Just curious, do we actually have a plan?"

Jake coughed. "Well no…unless you count showing up all dirty and contaminating their lab. We've been kind of making this up as we go."

"Yeah I got that," Sherry smiled into his side. "Our weapons are gone. My clothes are back in that cabin…."

"Or your Ustanak fanboy is wearing them."

Sherry's eyes watered at that. "That's not funny."

"Yeah it is," Jake muttered staring up at the stars. "But that guy shot me in the back while I was protecting you. Don't ever ask me to feel sorry for that asshole."

"I won't," she put an arm around his chest. "But that they can do that to someone…just by injecting them. That quickly… That's scary."

"They can't do it to us." Jake felt more confident about it. He didn't know it for a face.

"Why not?"

"I don't know…I'm a merc, not a scientist," snapped Jake. "But the way I see it, I'm not a J'avo, and you're still gorgeously human as ever."

"Am I?" That she whispered to herself. Jake heard it, understood the fear in the question, but didn't reply. It didn't matter, if she wasn't…he was literally in the same boat with her. He had the same fears about himself. 

"Try to get some rest," he said finally. "It's going to get colder, we may have to steal some coats when we get there."

She laid her head down on his chest and he wrapped an arm around her. It was a familiar position that they readily slipped into. He laid his head back against the coals and looked up into the cloudy sky that they were zipping under.  
"How are we taking the fight to them?" She asked again in a whisper.

"We'll get some gear first," he said, "and then we have to find them."

"Before they find us?"

Jake turned his face down to look her in the face. "If they found us, it won't exactly be their lucky day will it?" She smiled up at him and closed her eyes. He looked down at her for a while and listened to the train move. They were always on the run. He began to think about how would they could disappear. Really disappear, not be beholden to any government that in an instant could retract it's protection and use them for whatever gains it could get out of them.

For all his bravado he still was not sure how to find Wesker. His dead father was still running things from the grave. God, he hated the guy. 

He had no idea what they were going to do. Maybe he should get caught. He thought about just showing his face. Sherry was a competent fighter, but he still didn't want her in Wesker Jr.'s labs for any reason. The guy was just too unpredictable, too smart, and way too far ahead of them.

Jake feared that guy even more than the giant Ustanak that was tracking them. He was lulled into a fitful sleep with Sherry's tiny warmth comforting him.


	34. Chapter 34

"Sir! Sir! You are going to want to come see this!" Leon awoke with a start, near him Chris and Claire who had been sleeping in the same tent awoke also.

"What is it?" He said groggily.

"The creature has stopped and is simply standing there, all the bugs are down along the tracks hovering."

Leon was awake in a flash. Grabbing his guns he ran outside the tent, only stopping to relieve himself outside the tent. It was a dark out still and there was a jeep running waiting for him. They'd been following the Ustanak creature for a few days as it plodded along the tracks. Knowing that engaging the creature directly would kill most of the agent here Chris had ordered them to follow it and report any changes before crashing for the night himself.

But now it had just stopped. They loaded into the jeep quickly and rode along, it took an hour to reach the location of the Ustanak. It really was just standing there waiting, its bug-like seekers spread out down the tracks.

Leon stopped. "What is it waiting for?" He asked.

Chris and Claire coming up behind him didn't respond.

"You hear that?" said Claire suddenly. There was a slight vibration coming from the tracks.

"A train." Said Chris.

"You don't suppose..." started Claire.

"They're on it?" Finished Leon. He glanced at the waiting creature, the rumbling increased and soon the headlights of the Engine were visible in the distance.

"Why would they come back?" Asked Claire.

"Maybe they figured out something?" Said Chris hopefully.

They hadn't found much on Senator Derges, although Leon hadn't thought they would. All records were closed to the BSAA. The Senator was still in the hospital, although rumors were flying like mad. Hunnigan was keeping an eye there, while they followed the Ustanak down the tracks.

Suddenly as the train approached the lights from the bugs began to change to red as they encountered it down the tracks. It was a bizarre light show.

The Ustanak itself began to move, it became more agitated as the train approached and it started uttering a sound. "Shaaawwwy. Shawy, Shhhhaaawwwwy."

Suddenly Chris gasped. "Oh my god, it's Devon!"

"What is?" said Claire.

"The Ustanak, look at the hair..." The close cropped hair and features were unmistakable now although a bit stretched on its titanic head.

Leon glanced at it, "They did a better job with him than the last one I encountered."

Chris shot him a look.

Leon shrugged. "You had to have seen it."

With the train barreling down the tracks the Ustanak suddenly took off at a run.

"Shit," snapped Leon taking off after...then stopping. "Back off," he cried suddenly, "Air units! Fire on it!" He was yelling into the head set. Bullets rained down on the Ustanak but they barely slowed it down.

The creature charged into the engine of the train suddenly. Time slowed for Leon as the trained rocked off of the tracks, causing the rest of the train to come forward with it. Train cars slowed as the cars slowed and were pull off the track by the ones in front. The screeching of metal on metal was agonizing. Leon made a mental to thank somebody up there that it only a cargo train and not a passenger train filled with people.

It took a full ten minutes for the sound of screeching metal to come to a halt.

Twisted metal was everywhere and amidst the debris the Ustanak could be heard turning over cars and roaring out, "Shaaawwy, shawy, Jeeeeeeek Moooola, Shaaaawwwy..." The Ustanak had a gash on it's left side but simply kept moving.

"If it is him, he knows exactly who he's after. And so do we," Leon said following closely. Any trace of his exhaustion was gone.

"I hope they weren't on that train," said Chris running down the length of the cars. He listened into his ear piece. "All units look for survivors, avoid the creature till we find a way to take it down or out of commission. Air One, keep an eye on its progress let me know if it finds anyone, or anything."


	35. Chapter 35

Jake woke up on his back in the snow, he was freezing and Sherry was on top of him. His arms were wrapped around her. In a sudden flashback to a helicopter crash they'd both were in he almost panicked remembering last time they'd ended up like this. 

_He'd woken up on his back in the snow, his body ached from hitting the ground in a broken parachute. He'd lifted his hand and it had been covered in blood. The girl wasn't moving, she lay unconscious against his chest. Even though he was a mercenary, death still bothered him. He panicked pushing her off and away from him, glancing at her from a few feet away, a large piece of metal was stuck in her back, impaling her. She wasn't going to make it.  "What do I do?"_

_"Pull it out."_

_"No, you'll bleed to death."_

_"Please."_

He snapped back to the present lifting up his hand just to see if there was blood, but it was clean this time. He breathed a sigh of relief and dropped his head back into the snow. "Come on Super girl," he whispered lifting her up and looking into her face. There was coal in the snow all around them and they were randomly splotched with black dust. Sherry even had a black hand print across her face. He moved stiffly and for the first time began to feel his body heal since Wesker had stabbed him in the arm.

_God it hurt._

He must have done something serious as he heard a few pops and cracks from his legs as they straightened. Sherry was unconscious on top of him. He hoped that if she'd broken anything it was healed before she woke up. Fast healing might be beneficial but it also hurt like a bitch. 

They'd both been asleep when the train tipped over, fortunately for them they'd spilled out over the top, their train car hitting a few trees on its way over so never really spilled its entire contents on top of them. A great many coals lay scattered about on the ground but they were not buried.

He sat up and gently laid Sherry on the ground and looked around. There were some bright flashes down the front of the line. And he could hear a loud roaring, helicopters and gunfire. "Son of a bitch," he said suddenly realizing what had caused the crash.

Sherry stirred. "What happened?" She asked groggily.

"We got to move Sherry!" Jake didn't wait for her to respond but snatched her up off the ground in his arms and took off running away from the roaring near the front of the train. The Ustanak was back and they didn't have the means to fight him.

"Wait!" said Sherry, "Is that the BSAA up there? Look!"

A helicopter was making its way down the tracks shining a spot light over the downed rail cars.  
"Not sure," said Jake, "let's find cover." Sherry was shivering in his arms. "Not this again," he muttered dodging behind some trees for cover in the snow.

"I can run," she protested. He dropped her on her feet behind the trees just as the spotlight hit their rail car. The rest of the train had come to a screeching halt mostly up right behind their car. All the cars in front were off the line though. Lights were flashing everywhere and somewhere in that mess the Ustanak was sorting through rail cars, flipping them over like logs to find them.

Suddenly three more helicopters came in from the south. These were not BSAA, they were the same models as the ones that had pursued them in China. Jake put a protective arm around Sherry. They were probably tracking the Ustanak who'd gone berserk.

"Shit," he said, "this isn't going to end well. We're sitting ducks out here. We've got to move."

"Head towards the BSAA?" Sherry suggested.

"Hate to say it but it might be our best option." Jake replied. The helicopters had flown past. "Go!"

They ran.

They ran past the overturned cars towards the lights on the ground.

J'avo burst from the tree quick to get on their heels, but they kept running, Jake never letting go of Sherry's hand.

They ran right into the arms of the Ustanak.

Quite literally into his arms. Jake smashed into them from behind as it came up suddenly from behind a rail car. It was like running into a brick wall. His head bounced off the great fists and Sherry in turn smashed into him from behind. He heard her shriek "Jake!" as his vision dimmed. They went down together at the feet of the Ustanak a tangle of bodies.

The last thing Jake heard was Sherry calling his name over the roaring of the Ustanak as it stomped on him and his own ribs breaking. Gunfire breaking out over them.

 _Sherry just run! Don't wait for me,_ he tried getting out, but his mouth wasn't quite working, as everything faded to black.


	36. Part 36 Less than normal circumstances

"Shit!" said Leon for the tenth time that night. The helicopters had flown out of nowhere. He'd underestimated Neo-Umbrella's, or whatever name they were currently under, ability to find resources. The birds were unmarked, black helicopters, armed to the teeth, appearing out of thin air. So they were tracking the Ustanak. Leon thought to himself. Interesting. Ada had told him they could make their own scent hounds. He hadn't quite understood what that meant until now.

He watched the Ustanak pick up a black haired woman and a dark haired man, the man was mangled badly but there was no mistaking Jake's large form and Sherry's tiny one from a distance. That they altered their appearance slightly did not surprise him. They must have found something to risk coming back north. 

The helicopters had come out of nowhere and engaged the BSAA's, pinning them down and leaving the Ustanak free to take the two unconscious forms off into the trees.

That didn't even include the mass of J'avo that had suddenly appeared from the forest. What they were doing there Leon could only guess but they managed to keep them distracted long enough for the Ustanak to get what it had come for.

Once the Ustanak was gone the J'avo that weren't dead vanished into the trees.

Corpses from both sides lined the ground, the bodies of the J'avo collapsing in on themselves into messes of red soaked, slushy, ash as their bodies, no longer alive could no longer maintain the form. Leon couldn't even pretend to understand why that happened. He was just glad they were dead.

"Damn it," said Chris next to him. He was covered in a scratches and a few more bruises for his trouble. 

"I have this," said Claire holding up a tracking device. "I did manage to shoot a tracker one of those J'avo before he left...we should be able to see where they're going. At least that one. I was going to shoot it into the Ustanak but then things got a bit hairy..." Her voice trailed off.

Both of the men stared at her for a moment. 

"Genius," Leon smiled at her wishing once again they could meet under less than normal circumstances. Like getting coffee or a drink at a bar. 

But normal for them meant battling crazy B.O.W.'s constantly. "You know," he said. "For once couldn't we get together when we're not shooting something?"


	37. Not Like This...

Jake dragged his eyes open. He was suspended in the air... again. He knew he'd been injured badly to have been knocked unconscious, he remembered the sounds of his own bones popping and breaking but he didn't feel any of that now. Just exhaustion. He could feel the bonds on his arms and waist again.

He pulled at them anyway, knowing it was more than likely going to be useless.

"Now, now," said a voice Jake was starting to hate more than anything. Down at his feet stood Albert Wesker, Jr. He was sporting a black outfit this time. The room they were in was a large square lab with about 20 feet of height judging from the height of the ceiling compared to the Ustanak standing in the right corner of the room near the doorway.

"Jake," said a voice to his right. He glanced over and discovered Sherry tied up the same way he was. They were fully clothed still, although Jake's were ripped, torn, and bloody. He glanced over at the Ustanak again. His eyes narrowed. Getting really sick of that thing.

"You were pretty mangled when he brought you in," said Wesker smiling grimly. I actually wondered if you were going to come back or not. Sherry did cry her eyes out when she saw you but you seemed to have made a great come back after all." He grinned. "And now you're both here, I have some exciting news for you." He paused clapping his hands. 

Jake swore the man had a flare for the dramatic. Fucking drama queen, he thought. He said nothing out loud.

"Sherry is with child." This caught Jake completely off guard and for once he had no reply. His mouth hung open. Sherry gasped and even the Ustanak from across the room grunted its surprise.

"I had my assistant run every test on Sherry we could think of, of course she ran that one too. I never would have thought of it, but with you in the picture," he glanced at Jake with a lifted eyebrow, "she did have the foresight for such a possibility." He gave Jake another sharp look. "I admit to wanting to have had the pleasure of doing that myself but once again half-brother you've beaten me to it." Wesker turned his eyes back to Sherry, and for once Jake saw a hunger in them he'd never seen before.

Wesker waved a finger at Sherry. "My father wrote that you were always a goodie two shoes my dear but it seems lately you've been naughty."

"Naturally I'm going to want to see if the virus carries through. We'll move Sherry along for observation. And then we'll carry on with you. After all, with your healing ability in full swing now I can make plenty of videos for my buyers. After all, it doesn't really matter to me if the virus works on them or not. People are desperate not to die that they will even kill themselves for the pleasure of living just a bit longer. Isn't it ironic?"

"Fuck you." Jake couldn't think of anything else to say. Getting Sherry out of here suddenly seemed ten times more necessary than it had earlier.

"Oh please, are we back to that again?" Wesker said. "I'm trying to be polite here but you've never mastered the art. I cannot believe we are even half-brothers." He motioned to Sherry and his assistants lowered her down. "I'm moving her to her own room now. There will be no experiments on her for the time being. I want to see how the next generation turns out." If they turn out, the next offspring will be mine.

Jake wanted to puke. The man was biologically his father. And he wanted Sherry... Jake shuddered, Sherry had given him the condensed version of what happened in China, knowing Wesker had been there. He wondered if she'd told him everything. Wesker had been a lab assistant there for six months?

Sherry, was still speechless as they unstrapped her and brought her down, they'd already taken vials upon vials of blood from her but the discovery of the pregnancy had caused all of that to cease. She felt nauseated by Wesker. Did the man seriously think she was just going to cooperate with him? She glanced at Jake as they moved her away from him. He was still strapped down but she could see the anxiety she felt reflected in his own eyes. 

Didn't we want to get caught? She thought to herself. She glanced at the man at her elbow and recognized him as the man who'd tried to kidnap her the first time.

"How's your throat?" she said in a low voice to him.

"What?" Stents leaned in closer. With a sharp jab, her arm shot out and punched him in the throat, again.

Stents gasped, croaked out, "bitch," and hit the floor gasping but Sherry was already moving to the other man holding her arm. She didn't have any of Jake's abilities or stamina but she'd sparred with him enough to know this guy was counting on his superior size and strength by the way he'd jerked her to him, intending to wrap his arms around her and to pin her in place. She let him pull her towards him and then kicked him viciously in the groin, dropping him before shoving him away from her. She turned towards anyone who was left and saw that it was just Wesker and the Ustanak who remained.

Wesker himself hadn't moved from his position next to Jake. He just stood there with an amused expression on his face. Sherry saw this and for a moment became uncertain and paused. Wesker pushed a button and Jake lowered to Wesker's level and then rotated so he was stretched out flat on his back at Wesker's waist.

"This isn't the kind of fun I had in mind. You could go quietly," he said staring at her, "Or I could call in an army of J'avo. Or, I could simply do this!" He jabbed a knife into Jake's throat.

Sherry gasped. "Nooooo!" Running to Jake's side she put her hand on his face. Knowing that he was going to heal from it didn't stop her from dropping her guard. Hearing him gurgle what should have been his last breath and knowing the torture of going through that over and over again.

Jake gurgled and gasped and felt the searing pain flow back into his throat as his vision dimmed and then brightened again, his chest tightened due to the lack of oxygen but as his throat came back together and the breathing became easier again the tension there eased away. Sherry still stood beside him staring into his face. "Oh god, Jake," she whispered, tears falling. "I don't know if I can watch that again..."

Jake smiled at her suddenly. "Built like a tank remember?" He rasped, his voice getting better. There was blood on the front of him but suddenly he was better again. He could understand the nightmares Sherry went through now. "Don't go quietly." He coughed. "Promise me, you'll never go quietly."

Wesker was still standing there next to her, the amused look was still on his face. "So sentimental...it's such a weakness."

Jake wanted to grab the man and beat him to a pulp. Hell, he'd even go through that fucking Ustanak to do it if he had to. The Ustanak had not moved at all. The big hulking creature had been glancing between Sherry and its master but so far had stayed out of it. Jake began to wonder how much of the man was left in there. He did not attempt to hurt Sherry in anyway, although he'd had no problem crushing Jake to a pulp. Probably normal for him, Jake thought. But still if they could get him to attack Wesker that might give Sherry a chance to get away. Jake had no illusions to his fate strapped as he was to the table.

"Now if you go quietly, I'll not have my friend Devon here, crush him again... in front of you."

"You have what you want." Said Sherry quietly. "Why is that not enough?"

"Your combination is unique," said Wesker to her. "I don't know if it's the circumstances under which you acquired it...your virus helped give my half-brother and I some incredible healing ability now that it's adapted. But I can't make it work for just anyone yet. Jake's sample mutated a poor homeless man. Unless you're immune to the C-virus this isn't going to work for you."

"So what do you need us for? It's not going to work." Snapped Sherry balling her fists.

"Oh it will work, I just need the particulars," Wesker responded. He moved closer and put a hand on her cheek. "Now are you going to be a good girl or am I going to have to use a bit of motivation to get you moving?"

Suddenly Jake couldn't stand to be strapped to the table anymore. He shifted and pulled against the bonds to no avail as Sherry placed herself between him and Wesker.

"I see," said Wesker. He motioned behind him. "Devon, do take care of my half-brother. Make it good..."

"You're just like your father." Sherry said. This caused Wesker to pause and he held up his arm motioning the Ustanak to halt.

"Go on."

"What do you mean, go on? You're just like him. You look exactly like him, like you were...cloned." She said the last word quietly, surprise on her face. Why haven't I thought of it before?

"You met him?"

"Only a few times. You know my father worked with him...he's the reason I was a Ward of the government in the first place. He came after me. After my virus..."

Jake who had been watching Wesker snapped his head around towards Sherry when he heard that. Worked together? Sherry was going to have to sit down with him soon and let him in on everything he didn't already know. Her familiarity with Neo-Umbrella made more sense now. She had grown up with these people. He felt a little spark of anger towards her. She had more than met his father.

"Yes, and Simmons put you right out there for me to find." Said Wesker smiling. "Simmons was always a bit too ambitious for a dog, you understand. He honestly thought he was in charge."

"What my father was doing was wrong," said Sherry as tears rolled down her face at his memory. She had loved her parents and they her. It wasn't till much later she had understood the full extent of the experiments they were working on. "In the end he became a monster."

"And here I am trying to correct their mistakes," Wesker responded. He looked as though he was growing bored with their conversation.

"If you really wanted to help fix their mistakes," said Sherry. "You'd help me shut it down. Don't be a part of the chaos they created. Help me fix it."

Jake stared at Sherry incredulously. Sherry had once told him about never giving up, no matter the odds. He couldn't believe here in the midst of all this, she was trying to see the good in Wesker Jr. Hell, she was even trying to draw it out of him.

That brought him up short. He too was a son of Wesker. Even if he was deeply ashamed of it. And she'd still seen something worth saving...even loving in him. Guilt blossomed in his chest at the anger he'd felt a moment ago. He hadn't told her everything about his growing up years either. Much of it was painful for him to talk about.

"Well isn't this one big happy reunion." Jake muttered. He knew mostly that Sherry's parents had worked in Raccoon City, but never how closely they were all entwined. They had come full circle it seemed. One of the Wesker boys was going to leave here with Sherry. Jake was determined that it was going to be him.

Sherry and Wesker both ignored him and stared at each other.

"Please," Sherry pleaded. She felt more than saw that this was a lost cause. Still she felt like she had to give him a chance to prove he wasn't his father. Whatever happened, she had at least given him a chance. What he did from there was on his own head.

Wesker just stood there and for a second Jake wondered if he was actually going to take Sherry up on the offer to destroy the work of both of their parents. He did not believe that that would happen after listening to the man rant and rave but Sherry had a way with people on occasion.

Just not this time.

"Now, now," started Wesker and Jake knew he was definitely against the idea entirely.

...and that's when Sherry made her move. Jake had to give her credit, she was a terrific actress. She'd been studying where the controls were and flew at the panel and hit the button that unlocked Jake. The bands all locking him into place popped off at once, he rolled to the other side and dropped down to the floor.

Wesker stared at him for a moment and then looked back at Sherry. "My dear you are a wonderful actress. My complements to you. It won't save either of you I'm afraid. I still need your G-Virus." He was still maddeningly calm.

Too fucking calm, thought Jake. He felt a sense of panic in him. He had no idea where they were or how to escape. 

"Devon," Wesker continued. "Please take care of my half-brother. Mash him as much as you like. I'm as curious as the rest of my techs to see how far back he can come from as well. Not to mention the video will be very useful to any future buyers."

The Ustanak advanced on Jake and Jake felt his rage about to boil over. Losing his cool wasn't going to work here though. And he didn't have a handy vat of lava to dump the Ustanak in like last time. Jake still wondered if there was a way to turn the Ustanak on Wesker. He didn't have much love for Devon but he figured the best way to atone for what he'd done was to help protect Sherry. Oh god, and our baby.

Don't think about that right now, Jake. He told himself. You can sort that out later.

The Ustanak came at him swinging and Jake dodged its massive fists by rolling to the floor, glancing around for a weapon of any kind. Something. Anything...

Wesker's voice cut in through the roars of the creature. "I heard you took an Ustanak on single handed. Care for a little demonstration?"

"Son of a bitch!" snapped Jake, ducking in time to avoid another colossal arm sweep.

"No!" called Sherry at the same time. This distracted the Ustanak long enough for Jake to get behind it. It's freakin' massive, he thought. Bigger than the last one.

But once again the Ustanak came to a halt and just stared at Sherry. For the first time even Wesker appeared disturbed by this. "Shawy?" Its over sized jaws moved and for a moment it stared down at her and then looked down at its massive arms. 

"Yeah, it's me." Sherry moved closer. She hesitated hating herself for wanting to just shoot the Ustanak. She wondered if he'd had any choice in the matter. Maybe they would never know.

Jake didn't move, he waited to see if the Ustanak would recognize her. As much as he disliked the guy when he was human he hoped that there was a shred of him left in there so that Sherry wouldn't end up being crushed to a pulp. Something worth saving.

The Ustanak came forward with a roar and a low sweep of its huge arm it sent Sherry flying across the room.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Chris surveyed the entrance of what looked to be a mine shaft. In New York State? Chris thought, not likely. Claire had shot a J'avo with a tracking device, and thankfully they weren't that smart. The signal had stopped here and they figured that the creature was deep underground now.

"Oddly enough property owned by Senator Derges's father, Malcom Derges." Said Claire.

"How is the dear Senator doing by the way?" Leon asked coming up behind Claire.

"Dead," said Claire.

"Funeral?"

"Close casket, private, family only." She gave Leon a look. "Virus didn't work for him long term anyway. I heard he got ugly...like had to be put down ugly."

"Geez," said Chris in front of them. "Don't they ever learn?"

Chris's team had formed up behind them. Everywhere they looked there were no guards, not even signs of cameras. But Chris wasn't fooled, somewhere they had sensors. Wesker had always been a pompous ass but he was smart and very little escaped his notice. There was no reason to believe the clone was not the same.

"Is this the only way in?" Leon asked quietly.

"No other entry in this area," said Claire. "They've checked. Repeatedly."

Leon paused, storming inside was a really bad idea, but if there was no other way in they were going to make the attempt.

"We could go in alone," he said. "I don't want to send everyone in, what if it's a trap?"

"Isn't it always?" Claire said. She smiled, "How long have we been dealing with this guy again?"

Leon chuckled. "Chris keep your guys stationed outside, we're going in."

"Feels like the good old days," Claire moved forward behind her brother.

"Like they've ever stopped." Chris muttered. 

"Never a dull moment," Leon hesitated. "Claire, we ever going to have that drink?"

"Really?" Chris surprised glanced over at Leon, his eyebrow shooting up. "You do that now?"

"Might never get another chance." Leon grinned at them both. Chris shook his head as he moved in.

Claire followed him without answering but smiled behind them. She shouldn't even be here but the only reason she was allowed was because she had an excellent survival record against B.O.W.s. Like Leon, the DSO wanted to recruit her for her experience at Raccoon City, but she'd turned down the offer needing a break.

The three of them walked into the tunnel not sure what they were expecting just knowing this was the last place the signal from the J'avo had come from.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Wesker clapped his hands.

Jake was shocked but moved quickly to Sherry's side. As he did the Ustanak turned on him. "Damn it," he swore moving away from Sherry. There was no way he was going back on that table. At least not willingly but Sherry was down and he was going to have to take everyone out before he could get to her.

Alarms began to ring suddenly.

Wesker glanced down at the monitors surrounding the room. "Looks like we have company again. I do hate it that we keep getting interrupted."

One glance at the monitors told Jake that it was Leon, Chris, and Claire coming in.

"I don't need you," said Wesker. "But I am going to take Sherry." He glanced at the Ustanak. "Take care of him won't you? I know you've been itching to beat him down. Well now is your chance. You see Jake, I no longer need a sample from you, although it would have been nice to get one and keep you around just to use your blood, I can use mine. And the infant after it is born. And the others to come." He smirked and let that hang in the air. Jake saw red as Wesker knew he would.

"Not a chance," Jake's voice had gone low. He would focus on preventing Wesker from taking Sherry even if it meant fighting both at the same time. Giving the others a chance to at least show up. That much he could do.

"You have no say in the matter I'm afraid." Wesker turned.

The Ustanak charged Jake then. Jake managed to tuck and roll over to where Sherry was. He heard noises out in the hall and the doors opened and J'avo tumbled in.

"Shit," Jake yelled. He scooped up Sherry and made an attempt to get around the J'avo. The Ustanak was also swinging wildly not caring who he hit, J'avo or Jake.

Only Wesker stood immobile to one spot watching the scene unfold. Sherry stirred over Jake's shoulder. Her healing ability waking her up sooner than most people would have done. Jake slugged a J'avo who got to close and set her down. "Steady?" He said as he stood in front of her attempting to keep the J'avo away as the Ustanak formally known as Mac Devon advanced on them. Gun shots reverberated throughout the hall.

"Yeah," she said shakily taking stock of the situation. She came up next to Jake and slugged the J'avo that tried to come up next to them from her side. Her hand broke at the force of her own punch and she grimaced but it knit itself back together quickly. By the time another came at her with what looked like a short sword the hand was back to normal. 

Unfortunately she couldn't hit hard enough to kill it and it mutated in the room. What used to be a head with 6 eyes in various place had a large snapping insect like jaws. Conveniently, the Ustanak's fist swung back and the huge creature took out the mutated J'avo without even glancing at it. Jake's relief was short lived. They still had the Ustanak to deal with after all.

"Can they get here any faster?" Jake said grabbing her shoulder and pushing her back as the Ustanak's large fist swung over the top of their heads. There was no convenient lava pool to drop this one in, but he wished they had one. The last time they'd burned the skin and the armor off of it, not to mention shortened it's legs to stubs. There were no extra metallic limbs to wrench off to disable the creature. This Wesker had succeeded where Carla Radames had failed. This Ustanak was virtually indestructible.

"Let's just be glad they showed up at all." Sherry snapped. She had a determined look on her face. Jake realized in that moment she was no longer fighting for just them but what she carried inside. There would be no arguments over what to do about the baby. Not that he would have argued with her, but the circumstances made her fight harder. She'd taken a blade off a J'avo somehow and was wielding it with extreme deadly efficiency.

That leaves the Ustanak to me then, he thought. Snatching a blade off a J'avo himself he drove his elbow into its face feeling bones crunch and then stabbed its own blade through its head, killing it. He turned back to the Ustanak just in time to get slammed against the wall. Managing to hang onto the blade, he saw stars for a moment but they cleared quickly. The Ustanak was lumbering toward him and he launched himself from the wall straight at the Ustanak with a loud cry. The blade bit deep into the chest of the Ustanak but did not slow it down.

Wesker still standing motionless with all this chaos watched Jake with interest. Jake was still hanging on the blade on the Ustanak's chest when he was snatched up, ripped off, and hurled violently across the room. He hit the wall, slid to the floor and got up pushing J'avo out of his way in a fury. "I've had enough of this shit." He moved to find another weapon.

The doors from outside blew open and Leon, Claire, and Chris ran into the room guns drawn. They were covered in blood and looked the worse for the wear.

"Leon!" cried Sherry from her side of the room.

Wesker standing there voiced above the fighting. "I don't believe we've met."

"Oh we've met." Said Claire briskly. Aiming at him. She pulled the trigger just as the Ustanak turned into them taking the bullets meant for Wesker

The Ustanak turned on the three of them and with a roar turned its attention on them.

"Devon, damn it!" Shouted Chris.

Jake moved back over to Sherry, breathing hard. They'd all taken hits as the J'avo began to lose their numbers. Another J'avo sprouted a long arm and was lashing at them from across the room. This is going to hurt, Jake thought as he felt the grossly extended arm grab into his shoulder. His feet left the ground and he was slammed into the floor in front of the creature who took a few steps back, it's arm waving wildly over it's head. Jake's shoulder felt raw from the grab site, but he moved in and smashed the J'avo in the face. He'd seen these types before. Up close they were fairly easy to kill. The arm got in the way, but from far away they could snatch you up and toss you off a building if you weren't careful. Any normal guy probably wouldn't be getting up from being slammed into the floor.

They surrounded the Ustanak who was being fired at from all sides. "Get the plate off its chest," shouted Jake over the chaos. "Damn near indestructible everywhere except for there." He fought his way back towards Sherry.

"How'd you get it off last time?" Shouted Leon rolling to the side as he barely dodged a fist.

"Lava," answered Sherry who had run out of things to kill.

By this time most of the J'avo had been put down either by the Ustanak or by those intending to rescue Jake and Sherry. Their bodies littered the floor which in turn was slick with their blood and gore. Somewhere Chris was radioing for back up. Jake couldn't see him but he could hear the man's voice.

The Ustanak was still swinging wildly at whoever was closest to it. Claire, Chris, and Leon all having to jump, dodge, and weave in an insane game of tag.

Wesker was still standing in the corner of the room acting like he did not have a care in the world. He watched the battle with interest but took no part in it himself.... Yet. Jake sorely wanted to walk over and punch him in his smug face but the Ustanak left them no room to deal with the younger Wesker.

Chris had never dealt with an Ustanak before. "How do we get the plate off?" He asked the question everyone was thinking.

"Got a knife? Anyone?," Jake told yelled towards him. Chris nodded and tossed Jake a combat knife and ducked as the creature swung at him. It grazed his shoulder and he tumbled into the wall.

Jake now armed with a blade, took a deep breathe, seized the opportune moment when the creature attacked Chris.

Sorry Redfield, he thought as the creature rushed over to Chris laying in a heap in the corner to finish him off.

Leon continued to shoot at the creature to get its attention.

Now or never, Jake. He took off at a run and leapt up onto the creatures massive backside slicing with the knife as he went. The leather straps that secured the plate in place slipped off. Jake got one arm around the Ustanak's massive neck and made an attempt to stab it in the throat but only managed to anger it further. It's huge body swung around trying to dislodge him, in the wildest bull ride any of them would ever see. The Ustanak's left arm came up and grabbed Jake around the shoulder, flinging him away. Jake hit the far wall hard. His vision blackened as he crumpled.

"You are crazy." Leon yelled going in with his gun blazing. He knew he wouldn't survive being tossed like a rag doll, but he could see Jake stirring from the floor as Sherry came running to get to him.

This only infuriated the Ustanak more.

"Tell them to shoot it in the heart." Jake gasped at Sherry. He felt broken bones and had no idea what he looked like, only the painful reality of the quick healing which was agonizing. The shadow of the Ustanak fell over them once more. He could hear Sherry shouting "shoot it in the heart!" Although the way he could feel his body cracking he could bet that it had its back to them and was stomping on him again. Briefly he wondered if there was a limit to how much he could heal from. His second thought was he was really tired of getting stomped on.

Fucking bastard, he thought as he blacked out.

Sherry pounded on the Ustanak with her bare hands as he stomped. She had no gun and there was no way for her to physically stop him. He swatted her aside like a fly and she went flying against the wall herself. It briefly turned its attention to her before turning away to deal with Leon, who had been peppering it with bullets attempting to distract it.

Come on Sherry, she thought to herself. Stop thinking about this as Devon, Mac Devon was dead as soon as they injected him. There is no more pity here.

Chris was suddenly there ducking under the swinging arms. He spotted the vulnerable space where the Ustanak's armor had been aimed and took the shot. It was perfect, it hit square in the heart and the Ustanak paused grunting with pain. Beneath Chris's feet Jake was a bloody mess.

The creature swung around and zeroed in on Chris. It was unsteady on its feet and Chris knew he'd hit the mark. It stepped back five massive steps away from Jake and put a hand over where it had been shot. But it didn't go down just yet.

"Leon, hit the heart!" He shouted. Leon came around the other side of the Ustanak to see if he could get a better shot off, trying not to stare at Jake laying on the floor. He too fired off rounds at the Ustanak's heart which it attempted to cover with its hand.

The Ustanak was obviously slowing. "Shawwwwy!" It shouted. It spun slowly looking for her. She was next to Jake with Claire.

Sherry turned when it called her name. She was red, covered in Jake's blood, she resembled one of the creatures, called the J'avo herself. Without warning she snatched the gun out of Claire's hand and advanced on the Ustanak. There was a wild rage in her eyes.

"Sherry! Get back!" Leon shouted. But for once she didn't listen.

"You son of a bitch," She whispered.

The Ustanak advanced on her and swung both of its massive arms at her leaving its heart unprotected.

And then everything happened in slow motion for Sherry.

Without hesitation she aimed the gun and fired into its massive chest, repeatedly until the clip was empty.

The Ustanak dropped like a stone at her feet both arms to either side of her. She was still pulling the trigger, screaming even though no bullets were coming out. Her eyes were closed and her voice gave out...

"Sherry?" Claire put her arms around her. Leon pulled the gun out of her now trembling hands.

Chris came up next to Sherry. "Is he...?" He didn't quite say it.

"No!" Sherry wheeled around, attempting to kneel next to him despite the mess. "No," she whispered.

"Where is Wesker?" asked Claire suddenly glancing around the room.

Wesker had disappeared again.

"Let's get him out of here," said Leon. He pulled a radio out of his pocket. He couldn't see Jake pulling out of this one. His face was bloody, his chest looked crumpled, blood covered everything. Leon knew Sherry wouldn't leave his side. He told himself he was doing a kindness for Sherry by calling for a medic instead of a body bag. "We need medical in here ASAP." 

Sherry took Jake's hand in her own. He had to live. Her other hand she placed on her stomach and looked down. "Not like this, Jake. Not like this..."


	38. I was wrong

"What are you going to do with her?" Claire hugged her arms to herself. She was referring to Sherry who'd been silent since they'd arrived at the hospital. She was currently listed as a civilian. But who knows how long that would last? 

"That's up to her." Leon rubbed his face with his hands. His back ached. He wondered if he was getting to old for this. "I think we're way past the time when everyone is going to tell her what's best for her." He gave Claire a pointed look. 

Claire nodded and hugged her arms tighter to herself. Leon noticed and put an arm around here. "Come here. She'll be fine." Claire leaned into him for a moment. When did we get so old? She marveled at how different the paths they had taken were, but they ended up in the same place. Things seemed to be coming full circle since they'd started in Raccoon City. 

Chris came through the doorway almost like he'd been summoned. He was dressed in civilian attire for once. The location was a medical facility, hidden for use by the government. It had bothered Leon more because he hadn't known of it's existence. Yet when he'd radioed for help this was the address given. 

There hadn't been time to get Jake fully acquainted with the inner workings of the DSO. Who to watch for, who to avoid. Leon wondered how long Sherry would stay working there.

"Where's Sherry?" Chris asked breaking into Leon's thoughts. 

"Upstairs." Leon nodded. Chris looked for a moment at Leon's arm around Claire's shoulders. 

"Don't start." Claire pulled away from Leon and stood up. "I'm getting coffee. Want any?"

"I'll take some." Leon glanced at Chris. He shook his head.

"I'm going in. There are more doctors on the way, more like scientists than actual doctors. I thought you should know." 

Leon paused looking at Chris, reading what he wasn't saying. It meant more studies, more time under the knife for Sherry, as if they hadn't taken enough pieces of her already. And he would be expected to look the other way like he'd been forced to last time when Simmons became her guardian. Claire had been allowed to check in on her then. But now? He watched Chris leave the room. 

He got out his own phone to make a few calls. I need whiskey, not coffee, he thought. 

 

________________________________________________________________________________

Jake opened his eyes slowly. The bright lights hurt so he clamped them shut again. Well I'm not dead yet. The first thing he noticed was that he was not strapped to anything but in fact laying in a hospital bed. The second was he sensed rather than saw that Sherry was next to him, her head on his arm. She was asleep. He could hear her steady breathing. It was the one thing that kept him from leaping out of the bed in a panic. 

He had an IV in his right arm and his chest hurt. It felt like the worst chest cold he'd ever had. 

But he was alive.

He brought the arm up Sherry wasn't laying on and brushed his head. He felt a rough cloth on his face. His head was completely bandaged with openings around his eyes.

"Sherry?" He rasped. His voice was a little hoarse. 

Her head snapped up focusing on his face. Her eyes were red rimmed, but from exhaustion or crying he couldn't tell. "Oh my god, Jake!"

She grasped his hand. He grunted, it still hurt. It must have been pretty bad for him to be still feeling the pain. Twelve hours, Wesker had told him, the first time when he'd been shot in the back. Even then Wesker hadn't been sure he'd come back. It hadn't mattered, family or no, he was just part of the experiment.

"Where are we?"

"I'm not sure," said Sherry. It was then that Jake noticed her clothes were covered in massive amounts of dried blood.

He sat up suddenly. He was shirtless but wearing some kind of shorts. "Sherry, what the hell?" He reached for her and held her at arms-length staring at the amount of blood on her.

She looked down at herself as if seeing what she really looked like for the first time. "Sorry…I didn't want to leave you…you were pretty messed up."

"So that's not yours?"

"No. It's yours."

"Jesus!" He said in response, he released her and reached up to feel his face. He began pulling at the bandages in an attempt to rip them off.

"Let me help," she reached forward and took his hands away, unwinding the bandages herself.

"Fine," he was still having trouble the fact that she was covered in that much blood and it was HIS. He stared at her while she worked, neither of them commenting for a moment. There was still too much to take in. A baby? 

"The Ustanak is dead." She said as she unwound the clothe from his face.

"Good fucking riddance," he responded. He noticed the slightest trace of blond showing under the dark hair. The way her eyes looked everywhere but his face. Yet she was still here.

"Wesker got away."

Jake clenched his fist at this but made no reply. He had no doubt in his mind that there would be another encounter

"I guess we're going hunting again."

"Only if we get our own cabin again." She muttered. He smiled at that. A dam somewhere inside of him burst. He had been afraid that she would talk about leaving, or that she'd lost the baby, something... But she was holding out just like he was. As she unwrapped the last bandage off his face she stopped, suddenly startled. "Oh my god."

"What? What is it?"

"Your scar…it's gone." His face was completely smoothed over. He put his fingers on his skin and rubbed the spot where the familiar indent should have been. He felt nothing. He kept rubbing expecting it to be there.

"What exactly happened to me?" He put his hand down, for once feeling disturbed.

"You got beaten to a bloody pulp," came Chris's voice from the doorway. Jake looked at the older man for a moment. He couldn't even think of a witty come back at this point. 

"How long was I out?"

"Overnight." Sherry grabbed his hand again, lacing her fingers in his. "It was pretty bad. We weren't sure if you were going to make it."

"They had to keep you sedated most of the time," Chris continued. "You woke up and…started screaming…we knew you were in pain, but…" Chris didn't continue. He'd never seen anything like it and hoped to never again. He knew Sherry was capable of healing but he did not know what that looked like when it happened. Until he'd seen Jake do it.

It had happened almost instantly. One minute Jake was unconscious and they weren't sure if he was still breathing. The next his eyes had opened wide and he had begun screaming uncontrollably, complete with audible popping sounds as his body put itself back into place. They'd been forced to hold him down as he struggled. Sherry had gotten herself covered in blood for her effort, Chris had ditched his military gear for the time being. He'd need a whole new set after this. He'd seen plenty of people die, get gruesome injuries, but that was something else altogether. He shuddered visibly. He had thought was a Jake a dead man. Seeing and hearing him heal back together was as gruesome as the stomping he had received at the hands of the Ustanak. "As for your face, you were barely recognizable. Your left cheek was ripped and smashed in…might explain the lack of scar."

Jake took that in quietly, staring down at his own lap, he was a bit shaken but he was not about to admit that in front of Redfield.

"How did you get the Ustanak down?" He addressed Chris with the question.

"Well…we all got a shot in, except Claire. Someone took her gun and fired the last rounds…that did it in."

"Someone?" Jake cast a glance at Sherry who was staring at her hands embarrassed.

Chris shot a glance over at Sherry and grinned. "Someone."

"There is one other thing," said Chris. "That Wesker we were fighting. He's not Wesker's son. He is his clone."

"What?" This hit Jake like a ton bricks. "Are you telling me that friggin' psycho in there was my father?"

"His clone." Corrected Chris. "Sherry can you give us a minute?"

Sherry hesitated.

"Go on," said Jake. "At least get changed, I'm kind of grossed out looking at all of my own blood on you."

Sherry finally did look down at herself. She was covered in blood; true she had washed her hands but she had refused to leave and so the bloody clothes were still on her.

"Claire brought you a bag," said Chris, "that's what I was coming to let you know. She's out there waiting in the hall."

Sherry nodded. She reached over and went to plant a kiss on his forehead only for Jake to pull her to him. He kept her close for a moment. He was so glad she was OK that he did not care if Chris or anybody else saw them. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the lips. Then he released her saying. "I'll be out of here shortly."

Sherry nodded and headed out the door.

Chris hesitated. "What did you want to know?" He decided it would probably best not to ask them about their relationship right now. He knew Claire's apprehensions, but he found that it didn't bother him as much as it did her. The kid had proven himself over and over again. 

"Was he like that, that guy in there. The clone?" 

When Chris hesitated, Jake's eyes narrowed. "Don't sugar coat my father. I already know he was a nut job."

"He was worse," said Chris. "He used to be my boss back when we worked together for S.T.A.R.S. He was my friend. He worked with Sherry's father initially, but when William Birkin was killed he continued on his own…" He paused not sure how Jake was taking this.

Jake nodded. "Go on." He sat up listening finally getting to hear what the rest of them knew.

Chris sighed. He sat down in the only chair in the room and stared at the floor. "Wesker was always working behind the scenes for his own ends. We…never knew where he was, he was always ten steps ahead. He was brilliant. We survived his first few "tests." I don't know when exactly he started turning himself into a monster but I think it was sometime before I encountered him on Rockfort Island. He was already changing, he had super human strength, speed, you name it."

"Alright," said Jake, "Skip to the part where you killed him…"

"My partner Sheva and I found him…he'd taken my previous partner Jill…now my wife, and experimented on her. Jill fought us, with the same inhuman speed and strength. She was being controlled, we eventually freed her and she escaped badly weakened. The only way we could defeat him was to over dose him on his own serum. That didn't slow him down so much as speed him up, make him angry. He made mistakes, we ended up crashing into an active volcano…"

"That just happened to be there?" Jake was only surprised because they had only managed to defeat the first Ustanak he and Sherry encountered by dropping it in lava that burned away most of its skin, and armor, leaving i's heart exposed.

"Hey look at the Underwater base off of China, running off geo-thermals…" responded Chris. "They have to run it somewhere that it won't be noticed on any grid."

Jake nodded. "Fair enough."

"We launched a few missiles, Sheva and I, from our escape helicopter. He died with his Uroboros virus."

"Are you sure?" Jake asked. "I mean he is still making a mess of things, and doing a hell of a job for a dead man."

Chris hesitated. "No one is ever sure where Wesker is concerned," he conceded. "But I'm sure the original Wesker is dead at any rate."

"You skipped a few parts," said Jake.

"I did," said Chris. "Sherry's been a Ward of the US Government since she was a kid because of Wesker wanting the G-virus in her system. Jill had a similar issue with the Virus she was injected with. It's why he kept her around instead of killing her. I messed up his first plans, we've been enemies ever since our S.T.A.R.S. days. He thought he would get revenge using Jill against me. Before that he had my sister held hostage, she lost Steve because of him. He and I go way back, so yeah, it was personal."

Jake narrowed his eyes and looked down at his hands. It hurt to hear that about his biological father. He didn't really need to hear too much more. He'd heard enough in China when he was stuck in the lab there. But sitting across from the man who'd helped to bring Wesker down. A man whose life he'd threatened before because of it. He'd been angry before when Chris had calmly announced to him that he'd killed his father.

Now here they were again, and Jake felt very differently about the whole ordeal.

Jake broke the silence. "Just for the record, I would have shot him too."

"What?" Chris looked at Jake surprise on his face.

"If I was in your place. I would have put a bullet between his eyes, and I would not have been sorry about it." Jake stared at his hands. He was itching to get out of this room, see Sherry, hunt Wesker, eat a steak. Anything besides sitting in bed. "Hell, I wish I still could."

"I'm not sorry." Said Chris softly. Jake studied him. "He took Jill for a while…I thought she was dead."

"Where is Jill now?"

"At home, office job. Away from the field till we know the full extent of what happened."

"Didn't waste time." Jake said.

"In my line of work, I've learned there's not time to waste. Just for the record," Chris continued. "I said I saw your father in you." Jake stiffened at those words. They had been painful to hear given everything he knew about Albert Wesker at that point. "I was wrong."

Jake let out a breath of air he didn't realize he'd been holding. He certainly didn't want anything thinking he was anything like Albert Wesker. Bearing a passing resemblance was bad enough. Chris could not have said anything more insulting to him when he'd mentioned the resemblance in the Neo-Umbrella base back in China.

Chris stood up. "So you going to pursue Sherry huh?"

"Pursue her?" Jake looked confused.

"You know you're six years younger than her right?"

"84," he said.

"What?"

"I was born in 84, not 92. That's some typo you guys have there."

"When was your mother with Wesker?"

"Don't know but she was young and so was he, not sure how he would have met up with her later, but she was already back in Edonia in 92."

"The year you were born."

"84." Jake repeated.

Chris stared at him. "So our file is wrong."

"Yep."

"Why would that be?"

"Don't know, don't care," said Jake lifting an eyebrow at him. His mother could have changed it for all he knew. Most of the records concerning him in Edonia were long destroyed in the war torn country. He wasn't worried about them digging up anything to link him to the past there.

Sherry came in at that moment looking refreshed. She had showered in a hurry, changed, and was no longer covered in his blood. She smiled at him and his heart lifted.

"I'll leave you two to it," said Chris as he stood up and headed for the door.

"Thanks Redfield," said Jake. Chris paused in the doorway and nodded at him again before leaving and letting the door close behind him.

"That went well?" Sherry anxiety etched on her face took his hand again.

Jake nodded but didn't elaborate. Instead he changed the subject to one he had been waiting to talk about since he woke up. "A baby huh?"

This time Sherry turned beet red. "I…I was just as surprised," she said. "I haven't told anyone yet."

Jake smiled. "I was just hoping you weren't going to come back and say you'd lost it, or were going to get rid of it."

Sherry looked horrified.

Jake held up his hands in defense. "I know we haven't talked about it, but in the middle of all of this…its not the worst thing ever…I mean I'm not going anywhere. Wesker is still out there, he knows…but no one else does. I don't want them locking you down anywhere. Hell I don't know what I'm saying." He pulled her forward into his lap resting his chin on her head. He had yet to see an actual doctor come in and check on him which was odd. He was ready to leave this place for good.

"Didn't Chris tell you?" Sherry whispered

"Tell me what?"

"We're still officially dead."

Jake paused. "No that asshole might have left that part out; we were talking about…other things."

When he didn't elaborate Sherry explained. "Right now we are two "rescued" civilians. I am not sure what hospital we are at, somewhere, but we can walk right out of here anytime now."

"You are sure?"

"Unofficially of course." She gave him a look that suggested this was possibly her preferred choice.

Jake threw off the blankets and yanked the IV out of his arm. His chest had stopped hurting during his conversation with Chris at some point. He hadn't noticed it. He still felt tired and was starving but he didn't want to stay in this room for another minute. He probably had a higher metabolism due to the healing...

"Here, I brought you something from the cafeteria." She handed him a shiny red apple.

"You read my mind." He bit into it, knowing it was just a snack. He felt like he was starving. His stomach even growled. He ignored it for now.

Wesker was still out there. Not his brother then but a living, breathing clone of what his father was.

He paused thinking of what had been done to Sherry and himself because of Wesker.

Oh yeah, I could put a fucking bullet in him, Chris.

"I'm unofficially going to walk out of here." He said looking down at himself for the first time. He had on a pair of white shorts. "Clothes for me?"

"I'll get-" Sherry started to say.

That's when Leon burst into the room. He dumped a pile of clothes on Jake and tossed a small bag at Sherry. Have to love his timing. Jake thought. He swore the man could read minds.

"What's going on?" Sherry asked, surprised by his sudden entrance.

"I'm not sure," said Leon. "But our two rescued civilians have just been ordered detained for questioning. It's not going to take them long to figure out who you are Sherry."

"Weren't they going to do that anyway?" Sherry glanced over at Jake.

"Yeah they were," said Leon, "by myself and Chris. We've just been ordered to turn you over to another agency."

"What agency?"

Leon hesitated. "BSAA science division. Partnered with the US Government, which is really odd. It's its own unit. I don't see any of it, Chris would never have worked in it at all. They test and record all the data recovered from Neo-Umbrella."

"This is bad because?" Sherry asked.

"Bad because you are supposed to be dead and Jake is supposed to be classified to the world and a free man," said Leon. He added quickly. "I think they are a division of Neo-Umbrella. A government sanctioned arm. Never had any proof. It was Simmon's project. But it wasn't shut down after he died, kind of moved to the side."

Jake was up dressing quickly. Sherry had turned away and was looking in the bag. It contained two 9mm and a huge wad of cash.

Leon shrugged apologetically. "It's what I had on short notice."

Sherry lifted an eyebrow at him. "Short notice? And what can you get with advanced notice?"

Leon only smiled at her which made Sherry wonder just what HIS connections were.

"Works for me." Said Jake, pulling up and buttoning his pants. He grabbed the bag pulled a 9mm out and after a quick glance, shoved it into his waist band. "Thanks Leon," He reached out and clasped the man's hand. He'd always respected Leon, especially after they'd fought together in China. Leon never judged him one way or the other for who his father had been. He never mentioned and Jake figured there was no way he didn't know.

Leon clasped his hand back and motioned for them to grab the coats he'd tossed in with Jake's clothes. "Got one for both of you, courtesy of Claire. She and Chris are down there right now either going to stall or provide a get-away."

"Stall." Jake and Sherry both said in unison.

"Glad you two are on the same page." Leon replied. He grabbed her shoulders. "Sherry wait, do you remember where Chris and Jill live?"

"Yeah why?" She glanced at Leon. She had met Chris's wife on a few occasions.

"Head there, tomorrow…get under cover tonight."

Sherry snatched up her coat and slipped it on. Leon had walked out the door, and Jake looked in the bag. He whistled when he saw the cash inside.

"No more train rides," said Sherry tucking the remaining gun into her coat pocket.

"Cabin at least?" asked Jake smiling. Sherry didn't smile back this time, simply looked away with her hand dropping to her belly. She shook her head and walked out into the corridor. No one was around yet to detain them. But soon they would be.

They were gone.


	39. Fourth Date

They were another anonymous couple walking on the street in a busy city. No one took a second glance at them. 

"Where the hell are we?" Jake asked Sherry, who could only shrug. The section of town looked active but the buildings also looked slightly run down. A safe house of sorts she guessed but that was all she could think of. It disturbed her to think that there was a hospital set up in the middle of a city.

It was dark and cold, thankfully they'd been supplied with jackets. There were tons of people milling about, and upon perusal Sherry couldn't even find signs they'd been in a hospital in the first place. It wasn't a hospital, she reminded herself. She had been more worried about whether or not Jake was going to come back then where they were going. After all Leon had been there, it was the good guys, right?

Definitely a safe house.

"Not sure," said Sherry finally. "I can't believe we didn't ask."

Jake was quiet for a moment. "You know the game is on his terms now."

"Whose?"

"Wesker's."

"Why would you say that?"

"Think about it. He's been one step ahead of this entire time. Even from the grave, he's dead and it still feels like he's running the show." Jake left out the parts he didn't want to discuss. How effective the virus had been for starters. He'd been beaten and should have died. Even a J'avo didn't survive the kind of hits he'd taken. He hadn't mutated, he was still human as much as he could think of himself as one. And he was still alive when he shouldn't be.

Sherry couldn't help but acknowledge what he was saying. Wesker had been a threat to her, almost her entire life. His death should have made things easier. But nothing was ever that simple.

"Our parents worked together?" Jake asked. He was almost afraid to hear it from her. He already knew the answer but it still felt like a lot of things coming full circle.

Sherry nodded at him. They were still standing on the street looking around. She pulled his hand and started walking down towards where she hoped they'd find a hotel that didn't ask too many questions after taking cash.

"You asked me once if I knew him in China. Do you remember?"

"Yeah in the locker room, first time I saw you nak--nevermind." His face flushed as she looked up at him. His missing scar was strange. It was such a part of him that she kept being surprised every time she saw that it wasn't there.

"Well yes, I'd seen him since childhood, I was just surprised that you knew about him. He worked with my Dad, although I didn't know much about it then. He said hello to me a few times. Was always nice but never wanted much to do with me until after I'd been infected with the G-Virus and survived."

"And then he hunted you."

"And then I became a Ward of the US Government...for my own protection," bitterness leeched out of her voice as they continued walking.

"Sure you were," sarcasm laced his voice, he was also lost in his own thoughts. Something in his tone made her glance at him. Suddenly his pocket started buzzing, he reached down and pulled out a burner phone. Jake glanced at Sherry, surprise etched across his features. "...and that was short notice."

It was Leon. "Where are you?"

"Hoping you could tell me, hero." Jake's tone was a little sarcastic, he had no idea where they were.

Leon paused, "hand Sherry the phone would you?"

Jake handed it over without another word.

"Hello?" She said taking phone, "Leon where are we?"

"Pittsburgh, Pennsylvannia."  
"Pittsburgh? Why?"

"Just where we were instructed to fly Jake, nearest facility where they felt they could treat him I think. They weren't expecting him to heal up as fast as they did when they started setting the ribs and checking him out. Naturally they called their higher ups."

"Won't they be looking for us here?"

"Of course. But they don't know who you are, hell they don't even have a complete picture of Jake's face yet. You took his bandages off. Not them." 

"So where were the guards?"

"That was us, Sherry, Chris and I. Officially we were supposed to guard you. The docs there, had to back off. Not enough security clearance, when they realized Jake was going to pull through, they had to leave, be debriefed and relocated."

"Ok," Sherry was thinking hard." She listened to Leon for a few more minutes as he relayed instructions, instructions she wasn't sure if she was going to follow yet.

"Got it."

She clicked the phone off after a moment and stared at it.

"What did he say?"

"We're still dead. Might have to alter our appearance again."

Jake stared at her dark hair, "No make-up."

"You don't have a scar."

He reached up and felt his smooth cheek. He'd been doing it a lot, subconsciously "Oh yeah."

"Evening folks." A man stepped in front of them with a rough accent that Jake couldn't place. In his hand he brandished a revolver. Jake's senses went on overdrive. Was this an agent sent by Neo-Umbrella? He pointed to an alley and Jake and Sherry both moved into it. 

Sherry sighed. "Really."

"I know," Jake muttered. He glanced back at the man.

"Empty your pockets or I'll put a bullet in your lady friend." Jake laughed. He couldn't help it. The man's eye brows shot up for a moment. Jake stopped laughing and stared at the man. He couldn't quite rob the grin off of his face. The man was trying to rob them. Neither one of them was the least bit afraid. They seemed more annoyed than anything.

He hesitated wondering if he'd bitten off more than he could chew. It was his last mistake. Jake's hand lashed out faster than he could see and tore the gun from his fingers while his other hand grabbed him by the neck. Jake hoisted the would be robber against the wall, his feet dangling off the ground. The gun he tucked into his waist band with the other. It might come in handy later. 

"My lady friend could tear you a new one," Jake snarled into the man's face. "She's nicer than me though, so just this once I'm going to go easy on you." The smell of urine filled the air, the robber had wet his pants. Jake dropped him in disgust and started to turn away. Whatever relief the man felt was obliterated when Jake suddenly turned and cracked him across the forehead. He dropped into the alley unconscious.

"I thought you said you were going easy on him?" Sherry didn't even blink at Jake's actions. 

"He's not dead." Jake answered with a shrug. He turned back to her. "I've forgotten what it's like to fight against another human again." He looked disturbed for a moment. "Men are slower. It's not like fighting a monster." He stopped and didn't go on.

Sherry looked around...they could effectively disappear at this point. The Ustanak was dead, not that Wesker Jr. couldn't create another. Technically the only face they knew was hers. She could always alter her appearance again, go back to being a blonde. That was easy.

"Wesker said my father spread his genes around. You think I could have siblings out there. You know, who aren't crazy like him?"

Sherry stopped in her tracks and turned to him. Family, it hadn't occurred to her that that was something Jake might want, badly. Badly enough to risk finding out if he had siblings from the most psychotic person to walk the earth.

"It's possible," She started carefully. "But would you want to have been discovered given all you knew about Wesker now?"

Jake started walking, jamming his hands into his pockets, stone faced. "Hey it wasn't all bad. We had one hell of a ride in Edonia, that was a nice first date. And the 2nd one in China was even more amazing, hell the third one topped it all, our own little cabin..." he trailed off. He had been counting them off out loud and his face turned red as he remembered the days in the cabin.

They had yet to talk about the future. Sherry's face had turned red as well and he knew she was thinking along the same lines he was.

"Why don't we find a place to crash?" said Sherry pointing to what looked like a run-down hotel, desperate to change the subject. He didn't call her on it, but his raised eyebrow told her he would ask her about it later.

The hotel sign read: Mayberry Inn, but the chipping paint gave an indication that it was not the most respectable place to rent and the staff weren't likely to ask too many questions. If you paid cash and didn't draw too much attention to yourself.

He hung back as Sherry marched in and asked for a room. A few minutes later they were walking to door 112 on the bottom floor. Most of the hotel was painted white although the paint job could use a touch up, the place was dingy and well-aged. Some of the walls even appeared yellow. Graffiti covered the outside in some areas.

A quick scan of the area revealed nothing out of the ordinary for this side of town. There were plenty of streetwalkers and prostitutes walking about, cars stopping to pick them up but nothing that resembled anything Neo-Umbrella had sent after them in the past.

Sherry unlocked their room and Jake glancing around behind them again went inside.

There was one bed in the room, a small full sized bed that even Jake cringed at sleeping on. Sherry didn't even bother to pull back the blanket. The room smelled of cigarettes but neither went to open the window to let the night air in. The one chair that was in the room Jake took and wedged under the door knob. It wasn't necessarily paranoia. Not for them.

Once that was done, they sat on the floor next to each other in front of the bed.

"We going to talk about it?" Jake asked her quietly staring at the door.

"I don't want to talk about it." Sherry said. She placed a hand on her stomach and turned away from him. She would never have known, never suspected the pregnancy. She had no symptoms or signs and guessed she never would outside of a blood test. What bothered her was the fact that no matter what, this child could also be chased down and kept by the government for its own ends. Just like she was.

"Don't do that," said Jake reaching over and covering her hand with his. His accent came on a lot thicker when he was worried or angry. Sherry hadn't realized how much he'd hidden it since he'd been here. He picked up languages like most people breathed air, it was only during the few moments that he wasn't trying to blend in that it came out strongly.

"Do what?"

"Look I've seen what you Americans do. You like to put things off to talk about them later. Well we don't always have a fucking later. In Edonia, we have a saying 'Tomorrow you're dead so you live today.'"

Sherry flinched when he said that. "Sounds like a great way to party your life away."

"Hey look at me," said Jake pulling her around to face him. She stared at the floor so he pulled her chin up with his fingertips so she was looking him in the eye.

"I said I was never leaving you again. I meant that."

"It's not that," said Sherry warmth flooding her at his words.

"Then what is it?"

"We're the two most wanted people on the planet, people want to use us to make...make an immortality virus. And we go and have a baby together? What were we thinking? We're hunted all the time, at other people's mercy and that's the kind of life this kid will have?"

"I think we were thinking we didn't give a fuck what they thought."

"Be serious."

"I am." He snapped. "I was thinking I was with the one woman that I love more than anything in this world and I didn't give a fuck about Neo-Umbrella or the government or anything else. I was thinking that I'm still done being their guinea pig."

Sherry had tears coming down her eyes. Jake pulled her close and hugged her to his chest. That she was worried about the baby did not surprise him. It was Sherry after all. "Why don't we try to get some sleep, figure out our next move in the morning."

She nodded.

"I'll take first watch."

"First watch?"

"Well yeah," Jake said, "We're in the middle of... Pittsburgh? I don't know anything about this place, you've obviously never been here. Wesker's clone is looking for us, and the BSAA boy scouts are looking for us too. And I don't want to be caught by either of them."

"Let's move the bed," She said. Pointing towards the door.

"You don't want to sleep on it?" Jake asked.

She shuddered and shook her head. Together they shoved the full sized bed against the chair under the knob. The curtains were kept closed. Sherry took off her coat and rolled it into a ball and then laid down on the floor next to Jake who sat up wide awake. He would have loved to be laying down next to her among other things but the last time he'd let his guard down an Ustanak had barreled through the door and Sherry had been nearly frozen to death. He wasn't about to let that happen again to her. To them, he corrected himself.

"Jake," she said after a moment. "Tell me about your mother."

Jake's face whipped around to look at Sherry lying next to him. "My mother?"

"Yes."

"Why do you want to know about her?"

"It seemed like she would have been the best parts of you." She said looking away.

Jake hesitated, unsure if he was ready to talk about his mother. He'd loved his mother more than anyone before Sherry. She'd sacrificed a lot for him but died before he could ever return the favor.

Oh god, did I really just give her a speech about opening up to me?

"She gave up a lot for me," he finally said to her. "Her money, her health, if we'd been anywhere else, she would probably still be alive." Sherry had turned to face him, looking up at him. "She taught me to play the piano?"

"You can actually play the piano," Sherry said incredulous. He'd mentioned it before but somehow she still couldn't picture it. "I think I'll need a demonstration before I believe that."

"Mom was good at it. She made me learn. Kind of weird skill for a mercenary to have, right?"

"No argument there," said Sherry. "At least you're well rounded." She paused for a second. "What was her name?"

"Her name?" Jake said. He never mentioned his mother's name to anyone, mostly because he didn't want them to go looking for her. It was a ridiculous idea he knew. If they wanted to find her they probably could. But a part of him held out the idea that he was somehow preserving his mother from being taken in by his biological father's legacy again. The guy was dead and still running things. It wasn't fair. But it was Sherry asking, and he stared at the top of her head. "Anja," he said after a moment, letting his home tongue accentuate the name fully.

"Anja," Sherry said to herself in a whisper. It was a good name, she decided.

"She loved to bake, when she was up for it anyway." He stopped. "Anyway, what about your mother? What happened to her? Why haven't you ever mentioned her before?"

This time it was Sherry who looked away, and Jake realized he'd touched on another sore subject. They definitely had a lot in common. Daddy issues, and apparently Mommy issues as well.

"Remember when I said my father's research killed him?" She said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Jake felt a knot tighten in his chest. "Yeah..."

"Well it killed her too."

Jake was again silent. He knew Sherry had been a ward of the government, that both parents had died. Pity for her rolled through him. He'd had his mother longer than she'd had hers.

"Come here," he said finally pulling her up. "Sit with me." He suddenly felt the need to just hold her, not really sure if she needed or wanted to be held but only knowing that he needed it. She got up and scooted between his legs and rested her head against his chest. She always felt so tiny and fragile to him but he knew she wasn't. Sitting her head rested against his chest and she was short enough for him to rest his chin on top of her head. He put his arms around her.

"What a fucking pair we make." He said finally.

"What do you mean?" She asked under his chin.

"Fucked up parents, and here we are reaping the rewards of their decisions." He said staring across the room.

"Well we don't have to be like them." Sherry replied in a low voice.

"No shit," said Jake. "We don't." He reached and lifted her chin so she was facing him and kissed her.

They broke apart and just sat there for a while.

"I meant what I said before," Jake said over the top of her head.

"Which part?" Sherry asked, opening her eyes.

"About walking you down the aisle."

"Oh," Sherry didn't know what to say back this time.

"I'm not going anywhere super girl. Not if I can help it." He moved a hand down to her belly and pulled her close.

She reached up with both arms and pulled him down towards her.

"Sherry..." Jake said pulling back slightly, not exactly pushing away. "Last time we had an Ustanak attack us. I don't want to let my guard down...and—"

"Who was it that told me that Edonian saying, about "tomorrow you're dead." Sherry replied into his lips as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Super girl...," he replied pulling her to him again.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Jake was groggy in the morning but when he sensed movement in the room he snapped instantly awake. It was only Sherry standing across the room in front of a long rectangular mirror that probably cost about 10$ from a Dollar Store. She was lifting her shirt and staring at her flat belly turning from side to side. She was carrying a life and trying to see some sign of it. She placed her hands on her stomach and stared at her reflection.

"That's not coffee, but it works, I'm definitely wide awake now," he said.

Startled she dropped her shirt and spun around. "I'm so sorry did I wake you?"

"Yes and no," he said, yawning. "Light sleeper. You look great. Hope you aren't worried about getting big."

"Just seeing...what there is to see."

"Nothing yet." Jake stretched.

"We need to get to Chris's house." She said stretching. She had been studying herself in the mirror all morning while he slept. Her eyes were slightly puffy from lack of sleep; her dark brown hair was curling up past her ears. Not much she could do about her appearance right now. She turned around. "Well?" 

"You look fine." He said, knowing she was not asking about her appearance. But after being on edge the past few weeks it felt good to rib her just a little.

"Jake!" She snapped. But a smile quirked at the corner of her mouth.

"Chris's house," he said sitting up and reaching for his clothes. "Got it."


	40. Choices

Ada Wong was used to being able to slip in and out of the Neo-Umbrella. She'd been paid to do it many times, sometimes by others who wanted information, sometimes by those who worked there. It didn't matter to her. She collected information. She knew her luck wouldn't last forever. 

Not that she depended solely on luck.

There were so many offices and bases belonging to the group, many operated independently from each other, all with the same goal in mind. Ada was surprised there were this many people who seemingly plotted for world destruction. Or did they naively believe that the founders would spare them their planned apocalypse should they ever manage to bring it about?

The problem, Ada thought, was the Neo-Umbrella could deliver their apocalypse if ever allowed to do so. So far those that opposed them had managed to undo their plans thus far. But even so, Neo-Umbrella maintained a strong grip on its resources. There were simply too many of those in power who were willing to buy what they were offering.

Humanity deserves to destroy itself, she thought.

But for whatever reason she was back in another base telling herself that she was stealing secrets for her employers who would pay money for the research.

She walked right into the trap without even realizing it at first. The computers were open in front of her, she slipped into what she assumed was a room filled with data. As she gazed at the monitor in front of her a voice that chilled her to the bone sounded behind her.

"I was wondering when we were going to meet in person Ada Wong."

Wesker?

She froze hands hovering over the keyboard. She didn't turn around. "I thought you were dead." She said.

"Dead?" Wesker's voice came from behind her. "Why would that be?"

"You're not Wesker. You just sound just like him."

"I am in a matter of speaking. I am his son. One of them anyway."

Ada slowly turned around. She knew this Wesker was a clone. Did he know?

"No," she said looking him in the face. "You are definitely not him then."

Wesker looked at her through black shades. She was used to dealing with the previous Wesker through communications devices. Never in person. Seeing his clone in person was unnerving even for her. He even wore black clothing just like him, although gone was the long black trench coat. Or perhaps we haven't gotten to that yet.

"A bit repetitious aren't we? While I have been curious about you Ada, I have been digging through my father's records. He made mention of you to me several times, what I find curious is that you are one of the few who never asked to be injected with any of his ....experiments. Tell me why is that? You've never sought that kind of power for yourself? What motivates you?"

Ada sucked in a breath, of all the questions she'd been prepared for this wasn't one of them. "All of us have a part to play." She finally settled on warily.

"And what's your part Ada?" Wesker said, stepping closer, never taking his eyes off of her.

"I've played many parts," said Ada. "Thief, liar, enemy, friend...of which in particular are you asking about?"

"Which part will save your life?" Said Wesker, "or should I say, Leon's? My father did mention you had a particular fondness for him."

"He would have noticed," said Ada softly.

"How about you be a song bird for me, and tell me what I'd like to know." He raised an eye brow at her.

"All right," said Ada, without hesitating, or allowing him to start asking questions she came back with. "You are not a son of Albert Wesker, you are his clone. His exact replica."

He didn't say anything. He was stunned, and it had always taken a lot to stun Albert Wesker, Sr. Jr. was no different. "Makes sense," He said finally. "Father's genome was perfect for all the research he was interested in. It only makes sense that he created me as a perfect clone of himself in case things went wrong. He'd have wanted to lead himself, not just his spawn."

Ada watched as he turned away her deep in thought. There was something missing here. She remembered the File she'd shown Leon called, "Project Resurrection." What was the purpose of having the clone around at all? What exactly was Project Resurrection? That was what she'd been on the hunt for. There were a few files, but most of them had in reference to Carla Radames, Ada's own clone. A few mentions of an obscure second project that would be put into play if anything went wrong. Although what would go wrong was not mentioned.

Ada waited a moment. There were few people in the world who frightened Ada Wong. Albert Wesker was one of them.

"I was curious as to Simmon's obsession with you." Wesker paused, "but you are quite clever. You've discovered Project Resurrection, despite the fact that we buried it under layers."

"Simmons never did take rejection very well." Ada responded. "I only found whispers of it, I still don't understand exactly what it is."

"My father had a contingency plan for everything," Wesker said. "Carla Radames was just an experiment, certainly one that went awry. But simply a stepping stone."

Ada remained silent. She wasn't sure why he was telling her this. Wesker never did anything without a motive.

"Ada, I am not sure of the all the details of the project, yet," he said distractedly. "Father always said you were handy, even if he was never sure what side you were on. Perhaps you can find it for me, and share the details?"

Ada straightened. She was being spared this time.

"Well there is one other thing you can do for me," he said after a moment. "I want the G-virus and I'm willing to pay for it. I'll even promise to let Kennedy live this time, even if he gets in the way."

Ada hesitated knowing how much Leon loved Sherry. She was the daughter he never had. Also knowing exactly what it was that Wesker was asking her to do. She might have had a soft spot for Leon but she'd always kept him at a distance to avoid any weaknesses.

Apparently she had not done the job as well as she had thought.

Wesker heard the hesitated breath and smiled. "Sherry Birkin, or Leon Kennedy." He said and walked away without looking back. "Don't take too long to decide."


	41. Message in a J'avo

The cab dropped them a few blocks from Chris's home. He lived in an upscale neighborhood when he wasn't traversing the planet. There was one thing peculiar to Chris's home that Jake noticed right away. Unlike the rest of the neighborhood Chris's red brick house sat directly in the middle of the yard. There were no decorative shrubbery in the yard. Literally nothing a rabbit could hide behind. In short, no one could walk up to their house without being seen from any direction. Jake filed that away. It didn't matter too much in the long run. He suspected that Chris or Jill? Was that her name was a little paranoid. Who could blame them?

Sherry looked around, both began to feel uneasy. Everything was still as you might expect in a neighborhood in the middle of the day. Stillness on a cold day, it made her skin crawl. They were 100 yards from Chris's house. What should have been safety.

"Sherry." Jake reached out and grabbed her hand. "Is this a good idea?"

"I don't know." She glanced around. Homes were spread out here, there weren't many places you could hide and yet. She heard it, the distinct sound of heavy, scarred breathing, from lungs that were ripped into different directions struggling to make a mutated body work. She couldn't see whatever creature was making the sounds...

A heavy clawed hand wrapped around her neck, she felt her feet lift from the ground as she was jerked out of Jake's hand. She heard Jake curse even as her own shout of surprise carried over with her. Sherry landed on her back, seeing stars. The headache lifted quickly and she glanced up seeing a mutated J'avo, the familiar six misplaced eyes, torn, bloody shirt, and a single mutated arm capable of seizing a person from twenty feet away. It withdrew its arm, staring at its prize as if it wasn't quite sure what to do with her. In an instant Jake was in her line of sight driving an upper cut to the creature's jaw. The biggest downside to that particular mutation she recalled was that they were able to snag you and drag you from far away. But up close the arm made it notoriously difficult for them to fight. The J'avo went down in a heap and didn't get up, it's body caving in on itself as it deteriorated rapidly.

"You sure," Jake started breathlessly. "You sure there's not a fucking leak in the DSO?"

Sherry didn't answer. She took his proffered hand , drawing her gun, and pulled herself up staring in awe.

Here they were in middle class America, guns drawn surrounded by J'avo. The grotesque creatures did not shamble, but were intelligent, a step up from the infected she'd encountered before. They could be controlled, to carry out missions, and someone was using them right here.

"The house." Sherry pointed. Jake glanced at the window as he took out his nine millimeter. A blonde woman was sitting up in it. Not only was she there, she had a sniper rifle pointed in their direction. It had to be Jill.

"Move!" He yanked Sherry behind him pulling her as his longer strides jerked her along. He didn't have time for the niceties of slowing down, he dragged her behind him. He heard the gun go off and chanced a glance behind him. A lead J'avo had gone down and five others had tripped over it. He didn't know this Jill, that Chris was married to, but he was glad she was on their side.

Jake boosted Sherry over the fence and then leaped over it himself. The four foot fence gave him little trouble and he suspected the J'avo that followed them wouldn't have an issue either. 

Fifty yards, and he hoped relative safety.

Bullets ricocheted off the metal black fencing they'd just climbed over. They both put their hands over their heads in instinct. Jake heard the rifle go off again and pulled Sherry to her feet. She aimed at a J'avo took a shot at it, hitting in the chest.  _Well shit_ , he thought as he watched it's legs sprout into what would have passed for a grasshopper's legs. The long sharp spines on the legs were capable of cutting a man down, this he knew from personal experience. They could also leap incredible distances. He wasn't interested in sticking around and letting it finish mutating.

He ran still pulling Sherry behind him. "Nice shot!" He shouted as they went.

"Sorry!" She answered, out of breath and struggling to keep her footing.

Ten yards.

Five yards. He felt Sherry go down behind him as he heard her shriek in pain. He skidded to a halt when he felt he hand leave his. The giant insect like J'avo had caught up to them and skewered Sherry through the shoulder. Jake turned to hit the creature with his fist when it's head disintegrated showering him and Sherry with blood and tissue.

_Thank you, Jill._

"You know I've never met Jill, but I like her already." He said as he once again pulled Sherry to her feet. She didn't reply, she was biting her lip, obviously in pain. Jake hated that he couldn't help her. He couldn't do anything but get her inside and let her body do the healing for her.

They were on the stairs leading to the front door. There was no deck. Just three stairs. Sherry pulled at the nob and the door swung in easily. Jill Redfield stood at the bottom dressed in shorts and a white tank top. In her arms was the sniper rifle she'd been using to shoot J'avo from the roof.

"Get out of the way." She shouted lifting the gun to her shoulder. Jake pushed Sherry to the right out of the entry way just as she pulled the trigger. A large thump and shriek told them Jill had hit her mark.

Helicopters began to sound over head as she kicked the door shut.

"Sherry," Jill next down to her an examined her shoulder.

"It's fine." Sherry pushed her hand away. "This is Jake. Jake, Jill..." She gasped as a bullet popped out of her shoulder and hit the floor. Jill stared at it for a moment.

"I'm not going to get used to that."

"Sorry." Sherry was looking better already.

"Don't." Jill smiled turning to look at Jake. "Not your fault." Gun shots sounded outside and Jill moved away from Jake to the window. Her bare feet moving silently across the carpet. Jake took in the sight of Jill's muscled form and well-tanned legs and almost whistled in appreciation. No wonder Chris didn't want to wait to get married. He didn't believe for a second that Jill Redfield had ever worked in an office.

He turned to a window himself offering Sherry his hand as he did so. "Super girl, you ok?"

"Fine," she sighed moving close to him. She didn't look at the bullet on the floor but went straight to the window next to him.

They both stared out the window. US Military helicopters rained fire down on the mutated J'avo. It was a nightmarish scene.

"Why would he just send a bunch of fucking monsters after us?" Jake asked glancing down at Sherry. His eye was immediately drawn to the red hole in her shirt.

"Well it wasn't obviously to catch you." Jill spoke up for the first time.

Jake stared at her and realized for the first time that Jill looked haunted. Her eyes stared at the scene unfolding in front of them and then at nothing at the same time. "I'm Jake Muller." He put out a hand and after staring at it for a moment she shook it.

"Jill." She studied his face for a few seconds in the foyer and Jake waited for the "have we met before?" spiel he'd gotten from the Redfield siblings. "You know, Chris said you resembled your father and to be prepared for that. But I don't see it."

Jake stared at her. Even Sherry froze, until the house shook and knocked them off their feet.

"What do you mean?" He asked, his hand had wrapped around Sherry's by reflex when they went down.

"I was held captive by Wesker for a few years." She looked away. "He tortured me, put a device to control me. Experimented on me. He never took a battle he wasn't sure he could win. He prepared for everything." She didn't turn back. "He is a master at mental warfare. He was just sending you a message. So sorry, I don't see the resemblance between you two."

"What did it say?" Sherry's voice shook.

Jill stared at the front door. "He can take you at will." She finally turned back to them. "I can't believe he's back. I thought, I hoped..."

"His clone is back." Sherry interrupted. "Not him."

Jill glanced at her and nodded, troubled.

The front door swung open and all three of them had their guns pointed at the intruder.

"Chris!" Jill dropped the rifle and flew at him.

"Jill," his arms clamped around his wife. He pulled her away to look at her. "You ok?"

"I'm fine." But her arms went around his neck once more and Chris pulled her into a deep kiss. Jake and Sherry glanced at each in embarrassment. Jake got slowly to his feet and pulled Sherry up behind him.

"So," he said to Chris. "This was your safe place, right?"

 

________________________________________________________________________________

Inside the Redfield home looked normal, white painted walls, a few paintings, a four-chaired brown kitchen table. It was neat, the kind of place Jake would expect to find a military guy like Chris living.

Leon and Claire had arrived to a destroyed neighborhood. Chris had the one home still intact.

Sherry was no longer a dark-haired brunette but back to her blonde hair, and she'd even managed to bring Jake back to his normal red hair which she was busy cutting short for him. They were hiding in the bathroom of Chris's home while Leon, Claire, Chris, and Jill discussed the next step in the kitchen. 

Jake scowled as he listened to the murmur of voices. "Super girl, I don't know what I'm doing." Her hands moved over his head as she sheered the last of his hair down, brushing in off of his head. The familiar color was back and as he glanced back up at her, her cheeks tinged pink.

"I don't think any of us do." She set the brush down on the sink.

He pulled her close to him, his face close to hers. "You promise me that we won't let that bastard win."

Sherry nodded wearily. She hurt more than just physically. Letting her face rest on his shoulder, she wrapped an arm around him. She didn't know what else to say. Mentally she was tired. Exactly where Wesker would have wanted her, exhausted and apt to make mistakes.

________________________________________________________________________________

Despite their closeness when they were on the run, Jake was back to scowling. He did not feel want to openly discuss their predicament with everyone just yet. His patience was running out.

Claire was studying Jake's face. "The scar didn't come back with the rest of your face?"

Jake touched his cheek again. It still felt strange to feel smooth skin. He shrugged though, other than the strangeness of not having his scar he could care less about it. His face had been beaten in by the enraged Ustanak, his neck and head had remained more or less intact. The way he figured it now was he'd have to take a head shot like the rest of the J'Avo to be killed. Sherry was probably the same way, although he wasn't going to mention it to anyone else. Let them think whatever they wanted.

 

"You think that this agency looking for us now is a government sanctioned arm of Neo-Umbrella?" He said to Leon just to change the subject.

"The science wing of the DSO was Simmon's project," said Leon. "Sherry visited for a while."

"As an inmate?" Jake asked not quite keeping the sarcasm out of her voice.

"It wasn't that bad." Sherry put her hand over his. "Claire visited me, and I had lots of tests. They just--"

"Like China?" He looked at her. Sherry looked away and did not respond. "Simmons was your guardian though." Jake sat forward. The guy was gone, otherwise Jake might have taken the job of killing him, himself.

"The agency is still active," Leon interrupted, leaning forward and lacing his fingers together on the table. "I don't know who is running it now though. It's been in the back ground, still there, but the security level clearance has gone up since Simmons died."

"Malcom Derges," said Claire. "The father of the late Senator."

"What about him?" Leon said.

"He's a scientist, or at least he was," Claire said. "Got his son into politics but he worked there. For the DSO's science division. That's the connection between the two."

"Did he work at Umbrella?" Leon asked her.

"I don't know," said Claire, "but he has a connection to Simmons." The Senator was the public face. His father was the brains.

"Perhaps they tested their virus on a dying man."

"And it didn't work." Claire finished, the senator had died of a massive heart attack according to the public record. Leon and Claire both knew better.

"But he's not responsible or in charge of all this," Chris said sweeping his hand around in a circle.

"Wesker said Simmons was too ambitious, and that he thought he was in charge," said Jake. "IF Simmons was the small fish in the pond...who are the big fish?"

"Maybe it is time to call Ada," Claire gave Leon a regretful look as soon as she said it. "She does slide in and out of that world pretty easily."

"Maybe," Leon nodded. He was not looking forward to the cryptic conversations they normally had. Getting a straight answer out of Ada was next to impossible. That wasn't even considering where her loyalties lay. Who knew?

"After this is over," said Leon turning back to Claire, "How about that cup of coffee?"

"Seriously?" Chris.

Jake with an amused look on his face repeated what Chris had said to him in the make shift hospital. "What did you say before? Time is short?"

Chris shot him a dirty look and then broke into a smile. "I'd still kick his ass if he hurt her. Or yours if you hurt Sherry for that matter."

Jake snorted and grinned and in that moment Sherry realized that despite the fact that Chris had killed Wesker, he and Jake had been able to cross that bridge and reach some sort of understanding. Before there was always tension between the two men and now they were laid back and easy going. She wondered what had been said at the hospital when she left.

Claire didn't respond for a moment. "What about Ada?"

"Ada?" Leon was surprised but he knew what she was asking.  _Isn't there something between you?_  He would have to hand it to Claire, she was not blind and not about to go have coffee with a man who wasn't exactly free. "Ada is never coming out of the shadows," he muttered mostly to himself.

  
It was Claire's turn to look surprised. She knew about their history but they never seemed to make a connection. Ada teased Leon and kept him at a distance. Claire wasn't about to get in the middle of that.

 

Leon shrugged. "Never a good time, we're going to have to stop meeting like this anyway. Something normal for a change."

 

"This is our normal," Claire laughed. "Since when have we ever met at any other time that would be considered normal?"

________________________________________________________________________________

Jill walked to the porch and surveyed the landscape. _There goes the neighborhood_ , she thought. It was a joke, but one she kept to herself. 

Chris had told everyone she'd taken a desk job, but that wasn't quite true. She had nightmares,  and had seen a therapist. Not that there was anyone quite prepared to deal with her trauma. She still had a scar between her breasts where the control device had been implanted onto her chest. Chris had ripped it off of her, the pain being the most welcome sign of her freedom.

Chris told her she'd spent three years as a captive. Three years of being able to see the world and watch someone else loyal to Wesker walk around in her skin and commit unspeakable acts. It was proof that someone had finally come up with a way to keep a person loyal to the point of death.  Even if she'd had to be injected repeatedly. Her many nightmares included waking up to find the device still attached to her chest.

She wanted to be in the field again. The very organization she'd started was wary of her however. Tested again and again because she had remnants of the T-virus inside of her. And 

The sun was setting and it cast long shadows toward her. Jill shuddered, knowing that what she was bout to suggest to Chris was going to be met with adamant refusal.

His familiar step sounded behind her and she turned to him smiling.

"Hey." He cross the space between them and studied their surroundings as a breezed kicked up dust. "Some day."

"Some day." She agreed. "Chris... I'm joining this mission."

"No." Chris turned to her, his face showing his surprise. God, she loved how he wore his heart on his sleeve. There was nothing deceptive about him.

She pulled him close and coveredd his mouth with hers before pulling away to look at the setting sun once more. "You know what I can do." She whispered. 

"I know." And he did. She had superior speed and strength in a similar fashion to Wesker's before they'd taken him down and killed him. Her body had been "prepared" to receive injections just like his. Wesker had needed them to maintain his superior strength, speed, and who knew what else. 

Jill hadn't. She wasn't as strong or as fast as Wesker. But she was faster and stronger than Chris. But she the nightmares of the experiments had taken their toll. She hadn't returned to work, couldn't concentrate on paper work they wanted her to do in her downtime.  

"So, you know why I need to do this." She squeezed his hand. Chris didn't know what else to say. Every bone in his body wanted to say no, but she was right. They needed every bit of strength they had. And if Jill wanted to put her particular set of skills to use he had no right to tell her no. Not after what Wesker had put her through.

But he didn't have to like it. Chris shuddered when a cool breeze pushed through and gave him a chill.

How long did they have to continue fighting a dead man?


	42. Making This Up As We Go

 

Albert Wesker, Jr. did not recognize the voice on the phone that called him. But clearly this person knew him and knew how to get in touch with him.

"I have something for you from your Father."

Wesker was silent. He did not know Malcom Derges personally, although he knew he had his hands in the Organization. He had spent a lot of time reading the files his Father left him, and Derges was listed among his associates as loyal. Wesker had never chased him down after his father died. It risked exposure, look at what had happened to Jake Muller, Wesker's natural son? 

He himself would have ended up with the same fate. Better to wait in the shadows and strike when it was too late.

"I'm listening," he sat up in his chair, tense, waiting.

"This is about Project Resurrection." Derges went on. "I assume by now you've found the bread crumbs your father left you?" 

Ah, so this was the mysterious Project Resurrection. Wesker listened with more interest. It was mentioned in a few files in passing. Mostly labeled "precursor to Project:R." Most of those were clone projects, both the mistakes and the successes, speeding up the time it took to make a clone, how human it turned out after the process was complete.

They'd been successful with him after all.

He put his own "Project: Immortality" to the side, sliding the file down next to his seat. This was a gift from his father. It was bound to be as grand as Wesker had been in real life. 

After all Jake and Sherry could wait. He could always find them when he needed to. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

 

"We'll have you lie low for a while then." Leon said to Jake. They were still at Chris's house. Leon and Jake were on the front porch each enjoying a cup of coffee. The neighborhood still resembled World War 3 and news crews were everywhere surveying the damage. A B.O.W. attack was the new normal though. No longer a government secret.

Jake scratched the back of his head with his right hand. "What about the job with the DSO?" His Estonian accent came on rather heavily this morning. Leon lifted an eyebrow when he heard it. Jake spent a lot of time blending in, other times he was too tired to fake an american accent. Today was one of those days.

"It's yours, if you want it." Leon stared. "I'm going to need help ferreting out the leak." 

"I can do that." 

"When you and Sherry get back to HQ, we'll get things rolling ASAP."

"About that..." Jake looked embarrassed as he hesitated. "Super girl here is going to need some vacation days," he started.

"I don't see how that's going to be a problem-" Leon started.

"About 9 months worth." Jake finished at the same time, looking at him pointedly. He returned to staring out across the ruined landscape.

Leon was stunned. "How long?" He said simply. He didn't know what else to say.

"Weeks," Sherry mumbled. She had come up behind them. She raised an eyebrow at Jake. He shrugged and muttered, "It's Leon."

"Then how do you know?" Leon ignored the exchange between them staring at Sherry this time.

"Wesker, ran a blood test on me," Sherry offered. "Leon, please don't be mad, I know it's the worst th--"

"I'm not mad, just bewildered." He interrupted her, staring at the two of them. Jake had taken an arm and placed in around Sherry's shoulders protectively. He'd been that way with her ever since Leon had met them. She looked so tiny next to him. What was it Claire had said?  _Stop thinking of her as the little girl you rescued in Raccoon City._

He'd watched Jake cover her several times in China, even after knowing she was self-healing.

 _"Didn't want the whole world to know about her,"_  he'd told Leon privately later.

Jake hadn't left her. If anything he'd probably smother her with protection until she boxed his ears. Leon began to smile.

"Congrats," he said. Sherry looked relieved, Jake exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Speaking of congrats," said Jake, "I hear there is a brunette waiting on a coffee date?"

Leon looked down at his watch. He was late.

"Women," he muttered. He glanced at the two of them. "I hope you know what you're doing." He turned away not waiting for the answer. Jake wanted to work with the DSO. That was fine, that was the initial goal wasn't it? But Leon's doubts about the leak in the DSO were taking their own toll on him. He wasn't sure who to trust back at HQ. 

Sherry and Jake watched him walk away. They were in no hurry, technically they were still dead. Although it was only a matter of time before Wesker came after them again. Hiding in plain sight seemed to be the better option. If there was an option. 

Jake leaned over and whispered in Sherry's ear. "He knows we're kind of making this up as we go, right?"

 

*This is the end of this book but no the story! Look for the next one in "Project:Resurrection" as soon as I get it edited!* ~Red_Leasia

 


End file.
